[scorpio]

Thanks Carolyn and oh so true what you say above. I am a nurse and worked in Palliative Care for years. I took on sooooo much that was never mine to own. I continue to listen and to love but no longer to take it on.

[TARNIP]

I went and saw a naturopath yesterday who did iridology and told me I was sensitive, creative and had a purpose but I have (for some reason unknown to myself) thrown blankets, doonas and all sorts of 'cover-overs' over my true self. Everything she told me was right. I am so sensitive that I cannot even watch the news, as I cry at just about anything. All the news tends to be about is animal cruelty, sick/injured children, elderly people being beaten and robbed and I personally cannot take any of that as it really breaks my heart. I love nothing more than helping others, but I soooooo deeply admire you people that have worked in nursing etc. I could not do it as I haven't yet learnt to detach myself from the pain of others. For myself, I believe this is a curse as I find myself suffering (for others especially) on a daily basis and I believe I have been using food to 'blanket' it as I don't know what else to do to relieve my emotional stress and I have no idea how you can completely change who you are. I am also a deep thinker and tend to over analyize everything too. I would love to be one of these people who can just turn off their feelings when it suits. The naturopath told me that being sensitive is a both a blessing and a curse but the trick is to learn how to start using it to my advantage and not my detriment, where to even start on that one????!!!

[Lady Nova of Oz]

here here Tarnip - nurses are my heroes - they are always at the front line of life mucking in and doing whats necessary no matter what the trauma. Nothing too great can be said for them and not be true.

Balance is the key when sensitivity takes on other's stuff. We must learn when we CANNOT help and let it go. It 's the times we CANNOT help that burden us. When we can help we are top of the world when we cant we burden ourselves with guilt and remorse and that helps no-one, especially ourselves.

One thing I have learnt via Jon's method is that letting go is key to more than weight. Emotional burdens are our weightiest burden when sensitivity drags extra stuff onto our souls that truely dont belong to us and yet we shoulder them regardless.

Learning to let go and actively recognising what stuff we should let go as we live our life and not storing it for later is a worthy challenge and I am hoping with practice we will be sensitive to our own needs also.

HUgz
Nova

[TrollsMum]

Tarnip,
I'm not sure what iridology is, but I do understand your pain. I have can shut it off in my head, but my body is still picking it up. I did shut if off for years in my head, but my body was still absorbing and holding onto it. I also feel that i am paying a high price from disconnecting my head from the rest of me. I've been to several mediums lately who have all told me the same thing...I must learn to trust myself. It's hard to do the right thing, but never seem to get the expected results...I have spent my whole life trying to be just like everyone else...envying the ease with which they handle life....I sometimes just get really confused... As a child I cried over everything....I have turned it off and learn how not to cry and I rarely do. I'm not sure that is good.

[Heather]

I have had to to learn to try to love myself as I love others.

[TaoGnosis]

Hello You Gloriously Sensitive (and Adaptive) People!!

I'd like to post an edited quote from myself, from another thread in the forum, here. Partly because I don't think I could express myself any better, and partly 'cause I'm lazy.

Still, it's because my heart so resonates with this anguish that I'd love to help alleviate even some small bit if I can.

I'd like to share a sort of meditative history.

I'm glad, now to be listening to the heart and the brain, together. They're only about eighteen inches apart but it seems so often that they treat each other like untrusted nations in a border dispute.

Ultimately, in my thinking, diplomacy works best ALWAYS -- whether between factions of people or factions of our soul.

The "Haves" must give a lot and the "Have Nots" must give a little. The nations of each individual soul come with different strengths -- some more mentally capable (all the way to downright HeadStrong) and some folks are more sensitive (all the way to mind-numbing "goopiness", of which I've often been guilty) -- but, it's the give and take of respect for the abilities of the heart by the head and for the thinking by the feeling that raises us up....

...I think what Jon provides (nutritionally and mentally) is the inner freedom to make choices we, otherwise, wouldn't have made. Once anything makes "sense" -- we know that one sense is Feeling but we say "making sense" to mean well-thought-out, so heart and head -- then we are In CONTROL of deciding what to do about it.

Making the transition I did, didn't happen all-at-once.

It was a tapering,
then getting run over by the wheel of the wagon I'd just fallen off,
then running to catch-up.

In hindsight I believe a more reasonable path, like what it sounds other wonderful people throughout this Forum are describing (they know who they are), would have been easier, and saner, and infinitely more gentle with my spirit.

But now that I've arrived I'd never go back. All the hard-core saints with their "dark night(s) of the soul" could have probably found their God much more gently, too, but afterward we all say, "I wouldn't have changed a thing."

If your body thinks you're going to lose something wonderful, IT WON"T LET YOU! Keep whatever [foods] seem reasonable and wickedly scrumptious. Heck, you've probably denied it enough things for one lifetime.

When it's had its fill -- and knows it's "Safe" -- it'll subtly let you know by making the new things (whatever they may be) seem even better!

Sorry to have written SO MUCH, but with one said, the other needed to balance it.

Pick-Up the PEACES of your broken Hearts!

With All the Love I can muster,

I pray this finds us all well & improving.

Marc

[Jon M]

This comment may be a tad controversial---and I don't want to engage in a debate on it---but it is an interesting bit of theory from a therapist/spiritual mentor of mine. He does counseling/therapy for a church supported group. I don't see him on a professional basis---he is my best friend. So I get loads of good input.

He told me that in his opinion, everyone that is overweight that he deals with is "hungry" for a deeper spiritual relationship with God. He said across the board in his therapy (not just limited to this church-supported group) he has found this to be true for the most part. He said it is odd---almost like their/our hunger for spirituality and desire to love God gets metaphorically replaced with a hunger for food.

I just found that it was interesting, because it is 100% accurate for me. I shut God out of my life, and gained tons of weight. I started to heal my wounds and draw closer to God, and I am losing weight and DEFINITELY not as controlled by food as I was six months ago.

I'm not trying to force this consideration on anyone---perhaps it can add another unique texture to the discussion, though.

[TrollsMum]

Jon,
That's an interesting theory, but for me, I am a very spiritual person and have had some profound experiences. But, to your point, I struggle with trust issues as it comes and goes - some abandonment issues. Funny thing is food does not control me, I have superb control over what I eat (often forgetting to eat) and yet not what I weigh...I know genetics is a part of it and I am working to not be afraid of food and to let myself enjoy what I eat. I know that I am afraid of success (in many areas) as I am afraid I will not be able to sustain it.

Always good to share ideas...no offensive to me.
D

[Eliza]

TrollsMom,

I, too, am very sensitive to people's moods, and feel and absorb negative energies. I understand your struggle. I hope the following helps you: There is a wonderful author you may have heard of, Dr. Judith Orloff, a trained psychiatrist, a specialist in what she calls "energy psychiatry". Her book Positive Energy, deals exactly with the problem you related and how to protect ourselves from the negative energy in our lives. It was an eye-opener for me. Most larger city library systems should have it.

I would post a link, but I am not sure if this forum allows that. Let me know if you have further questions.

[TrollsMum]

Thank, Eliza,
I have read many books on the subject, but not that one, nor have I heard of it, but I am heading straigt to amazon to check it out.

Diane