My all-time favorite all-natural facial care. “Unconditional Love” is literally the first ingredient in many of the products. And they have SUCH punny names, I am a sucker for a good pun…and a bad pun (is there a difference?).

Plus, a lot of the ingredients are things you can eat. It is really feeding your body. I have never loved skin care so much.

Some of my favorite specific products are ::

Pack Your Bags, They’re Leaving :: Instant Gratification Eye Gel

I am a cryer, and if I cry at all in a day then the next day I wake up with red and puffy eyes. So, if I have been bawling my eyes out…it really ain’t pretty. I put this gel on (sometimes a couple applications), then wipe it off with a cool, wet cloth.

You Can’t Zit Here! :: Blemish Banishing Foamy Wash

It is really good for reactive or rashy skin. I love it.

Honey, I Shrunk the Pores! :: Biologically Active Skin Polish

It really does! Pores are instantly smaller.

Amazing Face :: Rejuvenating Moisturizer

It really is! I use this one at night. It is thick and creamy, feels so good going on.

Rose Du Jour :: Light & Lovely Moisturizer

I use this lighter moisturizer for the day. It is light and just right.

Check out all the face care and see which ones might feel right for YOU.

Many highly sensitive people struggle with chronic inflammation. It is the root of most disease. It creates a breeding ground for bacteria which then leads to a vicious cycle that feeds the bacteria. This can then lead to autoimmune disorders over time, or hypersensitivity. Some common causes of inflammation are muscle tension from stress, eating an imbalance of acidic (starches, sugars, carbohydrates, caffeine, alcohol, meat) to alkaline foods (greens, some fruit), eating foods that one is intolerant to (gluten/wheat, dairy, soy), lack of sleep, environmental toxins…which then leads to craving more and more of these and increased inflammation, hence the vicious cycle. This article does a thorough and succinct job of describing how the highly sensitive nervous system can have a greater tendency toward inflammation.

OPC-3 is a powerful antioxidant supplement that counteracts and supports in preventing this process to decrease chronic inflammation, along with improve circulation and regulate blood sugar levels. This cutting edge supplement is in an isotonic form, which means it is liquid that is immediately bio-available to your body and goes right into the blood stream. For HSPs, this also means that your sensitive stomach won’t have a hard pill to try and digest. I don’t have any side effects from taking this, no stomach ache. To find out all about what OPC-3 is and how it does this, from research to ingredients and frequently asked questions, click on the tabs below the picture of the bottle on this page. You can also find research about OPC-3 on PubMed.gov, just enter it in the search box, and check out Pycnogenol.com to find out all about one of the powerful antioxidants in the supplement.

I personally noticed a dramatic improvement in my health when I started taking OPC-3 regularly: fewer infections, fewer allergic reactions, improved complexion and resolution of rashes. Plus, whenever I have had an infection or start to get an allergic reaction, I take 4 to 6 doses and it’s handled. Literally AMAZING. I have given it to multiple friends who struggle with autoimmune issues, including celiac disease, hypothyroidism, M.S. They noticed dramatic results, particularly around menstruation, having a significant decrease in bloating and cramping. I think it is a MUST for supporting highly sensitive bodies in day-to-day life. SO, check it out and see for yourself!

Unfolding Your Life Vision

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Right-Brain Business Plan

Licensed Facilitators

I absolutely love that Jenn Lee of Artizen Coaching has created not only such great tools for sensitive, creative people to use in life and business planning, but she has also turned them into services that you can use in your own practice and offerings. I have recently become a licensed facilitator for both her RBBP and UYLV services. Everything is thoroughly outlined, scripted, and clearly laid out. Yet, you have the freedom to use it the way that works for those you serve. I have found that when it comes to business planning, these services are some of the best out there. You don’t have to wrangle your self into planning in a way that isn’t you. You don’t see things up close, you come from a big vision and work your way down to earth…while much of the population works the other way. From the ground up.

This video is one of the best I have seen on explaining the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and thoroughly entertaining as well:

It goes hand in hand (get it!?…left and right hand in hand…) with what I am teaching with my model of The Highly Sensitive Hierarchy of Needs in the year-long Sensitive Leadership Membership Program. AND, I am going to be providing RBBP and UYLV Workshops as a part of this program, in week long small group retreat intensives that are sure to be powerful.

So, I hope that you will join me in-person (!) utilizing these sensitive savvy planning tools this year, check them out for your self in Jenn’s online versions/books/kits, or become a licensed facilitator your self to better serve all the sensitive planners out there in creating a life that works for them…not the other way around.

To see a full listing of all the Right-Brain tools Jenn offers, click here.

To see all about Sensitive Leadership Retreat Intensives, click here.

I have been reading The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo this year. It is a daily practice, one of those books where there is an entry for each day of the year. Each entry has some wisdom and a meditative exercise. I LOVE IT. That’s really all I can say. He is a highly sensitive person who is talking about and guiding, day by day, an awakening to the self. It does not have a particular religious or philosophical affiliation. Mark shares his humanness and vulnerability, giving words to such a subtle process. It’s a relief to read.

You are on a path to awakening to your self, being sensitive means that we cannot avoid it. Let yourself be present to the life you have to have the life you want. This book is a guide, a companion, in that path. You can choose it now.

From time to time I share quotes about the daily entry and ask questions on my Facebook page. So “like” my page to keep in touch and we can take this journey together, whether or not you decide to read the book yourself.

As an illustration of what is in store for you, here is the entry for February 7th called “A Legacy of Sadness”. I think that Mark illustrates the first step in really experiencing safety as a highly sensitive person so beautifully:

“Atlas wasn’t forced to hold up the world.

He was convinced that if he didn’t,

the world would fall.

Many of us are raised by well-intending parents to be the carriers of their sadness. Often the one child who is softer than the rest, who is more sensitive that the family is used to, is the one selected to deal with what no one else will deal with. It is an odd fate.

I was one of those children. I was often called too sensitive, too emotional, too day-dreamy. But as I grew older, as life visited us with the hardships that life inevitably brings to all families, it was I who was needed to carry the burden of my family’s inability to feel. Without having my capacity to feel ever valued or acknowledged, I was the one to shoulder the family sadness with the brunt of my heart.

I have come to understand that there is a huge difference between sharing someone’s pain and bearing it. Too many times, those in pain use the concern of loved ones as a way to ground what they don’t want to feel themselves. The way electricity runs off into the ground during a storm, they mistakenly use others to run their sadness and pain into the ground of those who care. Too often, we want others to hold our sadness or pain because we won’t take the risk to ask them to hold us while we are hurting.

As an adult trying to be my own person, understanding which feelings are genuinely mine and which are those I have inherited is often confusing. People like me, and maybe you identify, so let me say people like us, frequently feel responsible for the emotional condition of others.

It is delicate and never-ending work, this sorting of what is truly ours and what is not. When unable to stay within ourselves, we become codependent, never feeling at peace until the emotions of everyone around us are managed and tended–not so much out of compassion, but as the only way to quiet our anxious burden as carriers of sadness. Or when rebounding the other way, we can isolate, becoming not only dispassionate to others, but also numb to ourselves.

The work becomes that of making an accurate inlet of the heart without closing off to the feelings of others or to the depth of things that are ours to feel. Though some of us were trained to carry the sadness and pain of others, the fiber of the one heart we were given is strong and light enough by itself to bring us to the wind that is whispering, Let down, let go, the world will carry you.

* If you are a parent, think of how you share your feelings with your child. If you have a lover, think of how you share your feelings in that love. If you have a close friend, think of how you share your feelings in that friendship.

* Meditate on the last time you shared a sadness of pain with this special person.

* Through this example, look honestly at how you share such things and see if you try to transfer or unload your sadness of pain or if you simply give voice to what troubles you.

* If you can, recall your mood as you shared. Did you want the relief of surfacing what was building inside? Or did you want your loved one to make you feel better? Did you feel closer to yourself after sharing or more distant?

* If you think you have given them what’s yours to carry, go to them and thank them for holding your sadness. Lift it off their hearts and take it back. Ask them to hold you instead.”

I have found that the 8 stages of the Highly Sensitive Hierarchy of Needs correlate with the 8 chakras related to the physical body (there are often many more chakras taught about). And, I do find that HSPs move through the chakras in a similar upside down and inside out way, top to bottom rather than bottom to top. AND, this may have to do energetically with a power or force called “kundalini” and the way it moves through us. I find that many HSPs have spontaneous kundalini “awakenings” or physical sensations that are powerful and beyond any other known experience. I have had such an experience. It was beautiful and baffling, and changed everything. No matter where you are in this journey of strengthening your SELF and aligning with your authenticity, kundalini yoga exercises can be incredibly helpful. I took a kundalini yoga therapy course from Guru Dharam and LOVE this very practical and useful book that he wrote ::

It walks you through assessing which chakra to focus on and basic postures and combinations of postures to use in order to strengthen your self in that area. Highly practical and highly effective.

I have been working on the very bottom of the pyramid, the physical root chakra. I am a libra and balancing masculine and feminine has been an important path for me. My back has been out of alignment with idiopathic scoliosis. I feel that I am resolving that with the work I am doing now. I think the imbalance started in my hips, and clinging on to the right as well as closing off my sexual and creative energy. So, I have really been working with my hips, lower back, and groin to open and release. I LOVE plough pose for working with lower back issues. At first, it felt impossible. I am SURE I looked amazing going into it, incredible form (SARCASM). And now I actually do joyously roll forward and back in it.

Root chakra issues and back tension are common for HSPs, because that is the last stop for us.

I dare you to try out plough pose for 2 minutes and see how you feel (click the image to open in a separate page) ::