Are you a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)? I've said this before, and I'll say it many times again, being an HSP means our nervous systems work differently than "normal" people. Our nerves are highly reactive and more easily triggered. This is why we are easily startled, even if we are expecting something to happen. We respond to EVERYTHING: loud noises, sudden movement, flashes of light, pungent odors, and subtle flavors. We are triggered by things that other people consider normal: scratchy or itchy fabrics, inconsistent white noise, floaties in our vision, and so much more. Our nerves are just built differently. Our nerves are fibrous cables in our body that transmit electrical impulses of information through our bodies. This membership blog post describes how our nerves are more like fine silk as compared to the nerves of non-HSPs being more like durable cotton. When you think of your nerves in terms of the properties of silk, you start to recognize that your HSP sensitivities are, in fact, a precious super power.
Storytime
Imagine, as a highly sensitive person, if your sensitivity were heightened even more, AND you were stripped of your ability to control your own body completely. This is what happened to my friend Julie. She was one friend who completely understood what I meant when I said things like "my whole body feels unzipped today." On July 9, 2019, she fell down the stairs and broke her neck. The damage to her spinal cord was such that she could still FEEL everything, in fact she felt everything even more than before, but she didn't have the motor function to move her body parts without extra intense mental and physical effort.
Rumi said “the wound is the place where the light enters you.” But, I think Rumi had it backwards. I think the wound is the place where the light shines out of you.
Julie taught me this. You see, when she fell and broke her neck, her aura cracked. But the crack was unlike anything I’d seen before. It was like her body was an eggshell, and the crack was a sign that her body couldn’t contain her too-big and too-bright spirit anymore. While Julie always had a radiant light seeping out of her being, after her fall, that light got even brighter. Her expressions, her stories, her connections with the people around her got brighter too. I watched her words and her smile pierce the people who visited her, both her care-workers and her friends. And she spent the last six months of her life penetrating the souls of everyone who met her with her light, and cracking their spirits wide open as well. In those last two days of her life, her aura was blinding. Her spirit outgrew her body.
As ultra-sensitives, Julie and I had a kinship of understanding. A knowing. Both teachers by training and trade, our real life purpose is about holding space for people, feeling their pains with them, holding their hands through the pains until they figure out how to heal. So when she fell and broke her neck, I knew it was my turn to hold her. During those six months, I visited her in hospitals and rehab centers several times a week. In the last two months of her life, I fed her breakfast almost every morning. I was the one person who knew that the wrinkle under her leg wasn't just a minor irritation, but a constant distraction that frayed the nerves of her whole body. And, with just one look, I could see in her position, her aura, and her facial expressions exactly what she needed to adjust to comfort. She called me several times to come adjust her and help her sleep when the nurses just couldn't figure it out.
In the end, as her nerves deteriorated, I witnessed the extreme strength of the most sensitive individual I had ever known in my life. As she was wounded and hurting from her own injuries and issues, she was still adapting and adjusting to provide light and radiance to all those around her. She didn't have nerves of steel. Julie felt everything. She had nerves of SILK!
Rumi had it backwards. The wound isn’t the place where the light enters you. The wound is the place where your light shines out of you. Julie lived through many many wounds. And nurtured the wounds of hundreds (maybe thousands) of other souls. When her body couldn't contain that light anymore, it cracked and rained all over everyone. My light shines brighter because Julie taught me how to love my wounds.
Nerves Like Silk
Since Julie died, I've often wondered what actually happened to her nerves as a result of her fall. While I could see energetically in her aura what was happening, I wondered about the symbolism of her injuries. So, I asked a doctor friend of mine to describe what nerves feel like. She said nerves are very fine, like spider web, when in isolation. We have millions of them in our tissues that we are never aware of. As nerves group into bundles, the axons resemble plant stems. She suggested that the actual feel of spinal-cord/nerve-bundles reminds her of damp straw, but the cellular anatomy is different because the axons are single cell structures pulled together like skeins of yarn. I asked her if they were like wool and she said that wool has the texture of multiple fibers spinning off, while nerves are smoother.
As I read the texts of her descriptions, I envisioned the silk of spiderwebs and silkworms. Then, I looked up the qualities of silk, and had an AHA moment. For empaths and highly sensitive people, we have nerves of SILK! Well, perhaps everyone has nerves of silk, as those millions of nerves in isolation that my doc friend says we aren't aware of. Perhaps we energy sensitives are more aware of those tinier bundles of nerves, and they have the qualities and traits of SILK! That would certainly explain Julie, and what happened to her when her aura cracked...it was like her silk ripped, a zillion tiny little slits, and over the next six months, those slits just spread and spread and spread.
So I looked up the qualities of silk. It makes perfect sense. Energy Sensitives have NERVES OF SILK! We are made up of millions of fibers of SILK energy!
1. Silk is Adaptable & Beautiful
Silk takes well to dyes, and is very luxurious in sheen and luminosity. It also blends really well with other kinds of fibers.As sensitives, this means that we are like chameleons, we will adjust and adapt our "color" to whatever is around us, and change accordingly, quite easily. When we do take on the "color" or energy of someone else, it results in vibrant beautiful "colors." No wonder sensitive people have such radiant auras!
2. Silk is Soft & Resilient
Silk is extremely soft to the touch, one of the softest fabrics. Energy sensitives are also very soft, in our touch and tenderness to others. We can also be folded and stretched and still retain our shape extremely well. While delicate and thin enough to be pushed through a ring or hoop, silk (empaths) will quickly adjust to its original shape without a lot of wrinkling. Add just a little water and those wrinkled melt right off.
3. Silk Blends & Weaves Well with Other Fabrics
It also blends really well with other kinds of fibers. This means that we empaths play really nice with others, and blend well into all kinds of environments, adding a sense of beauty and shine everywhere we go.
4. Silk Holds Its Structural Integrity
As empaths and energy sensitives, INTEGRITY is a core value. We will not be corrupted or rotted out, rather, we maintain our authentic genuine qualities no matter what.
5. Silk is Heat Resistant
Silk is very difficult to burn. While yes, it can get hot, but for it to lose its "cool" an immense amount of heat and fire is necessary. This means that as empaths, we can withstand a very high amount of heat and pressure before we buckle.
6. Silk is Remarkably Strong & Elastic
Silk is not easily torn or damaged. Not only do we withstand high pressure and heat, we also are difficult to break. While we appear delicate, we are not fragile. The opposite is actually true, we can be stretched and recover quickly.
7. Silk clothing is cool in the summer, and warm in the winter
Silk is versatile. That means that as energy empaths, we can withstand both extreme heat and extreme cold, and we can adjust to provide warmth to others when they need it, but also to chill-out a situation when necessary.
8. Silk responds well to water.
Silk is easy to clean, and can absorb a significant amount of moisture before it feels wet. This means that as energy empaths, water is our friend. A little bit of water goes a long ways to help us regain our shape, clean off toxicity, and spruce up our energy.
Summary
We typically describe people who can withstand immense levels of pain without barely a wince as having nerves of steel. I believe that as highly sensitive people with empathic gifts, we have nerves of silk. Although delicate and beautiful and luxurious, we are also extremely strong, adaptable, resilient, and precious.
About the Body Wisdom Series
Our emotional issues live inside our physical tissues.
Ever since Louise Hay published You Can Heal Your Life in which she links specific positive affirmation to various body parts and ailments, the depth of information about the connections between emotional issues and body ailments has grown. You may have read the book The Body Keeps Score written by a psychiatrist Bessel van de Kolk, who studies the links between emotional trauma and physical illness. Or, I may have suggested in the past that you pick up Messages From the Body by Narayan Singh. What always frustrated me about these texts is that they focus on what is wrong and often fail to demonstrate the miraculous capacity and ability of the human body to adapt and adjust. Clients usually walk away from these books with varying levels of hypochondria, which only encourages your brain and body to believe something is wrong, thus perpetuating the wrongness.
If you listen to your body when it whispers,
you will never have to hear it scream.
This Body Wisdom Series is intended to highlight the magic and power and wisdom that lives inside your body. I also hope to teach you how to pay attention to your body, become body-mind aware so that you can better manage your introvert/hsp/empath sensitivities. If you sign up for the Membership Blog, you will receive the simple mind-body MOZI Method exercises to help you embrace and empower your brain and body to live up to its ultimate magical and miraculous potential and ability.
My goal is always to simplify and clarify the link between science of how our body works and the spirit of how we feel. This series focuses on that purpose.
book a mentoring appointment for a personalized analysis of your issues and specific homework to address them.