Hyper Empathy? Silent Nights Might Help
Soles to Soul Care for Trauma and AuDHD with Eve Menezes CunninghamShow Notes
Do you feel overwhelmed not just by your own intense feelings but by everyone else’s too? This episode will help you honour and appreciate your sensitive nervous system. I (Eve Menezes Cunningham, author, columnist, trauma therapist, senior accredited supervisor, coach, trauma survivor and AuDHDer) share practical strategies for managing hyper empathy which is common with ADHD, autism, AuDHD and trauma histories. I encourage you to create protected silence in your life, from daily meditation to weekly 12-hour mini retreats, explaining why this isn’t indulgent but can be especially helpful for sensitive nervous systems. Using my Feel. Love. Heal. framework, I guide you through: Creating buffer time and space for yourself (Feel) Accepting your sensitivity as a superpower (Love) Building community support for your needs (Heal)
Perfect for trauma survivors, AuDHDers, autistic people and ADHDers (and those who identify highly sensitive people or empaths) and anyone who finds themselves absorbing everyone else’s emotions and energy. Le grá (with love), Eve Resources mentioned: Tracy Otsuka (ADHD for Smart Ass Women) and Episode 86 for our interview Alice Tew & Carly Radford episode The Sole to Soul Circle 365 Ways to Feel Better book
Topics: hyper empathy, ADHD, autism, AuDHD, trauma recovery, sensitivity, boundaries, nervous system regulation, self-care Chapters (0:00) Overwhelmed by everyone else’s feelings (1:00) Honouring your extra-sensitive nervous system (2:30) When boundaries collapse under sensory overload (3:05) The Feel. Love. Heal. framework and creating space for silence (4:39) When life gets “too peopley” (8:17) Sensitivity as a superpower (when you protect it) (10:33) Healing through community and collective care (12:20) Imagining your future self with stronger boundaries Links Tracy Otsuka: Episode 86 Too Sensitive? Too Much? Says Who? Episode 78 with Alice Tew and Carly Radford Shadow Work with Black Cats and Sharks: Episode 71
Be More Cat: Episode 70
Love your inner Smelly Cat this Bealtaine and beyond Episode 56
Cattitude: Purr! Hiss! Freeze! Episode 48
Sole to Soul Circle membership (just €8/month): https://selfcarecoaching.net/sole-to-soul-circle/
Book: 365 Ways to Feel Better https://selfcarecoaching.net/book/
FULL TRANSCRIPT Do you ever feel overwhelmed not just by your own intense feelings but seemingly everyone else’s feelings? This episode, Episode 88 of the Feel Better Every Day Podcast, is for you. You can access show notes and everything else via thefeelbettereverydaypodcast.com You can subscribe wherever you want to subscribe and you can also access loads of free resources and find out other ways in which we might work together through selfcarecoaching.net Each Tuesday I release new episodes to help you take better care of yourself, that highest, wisest, truest, most miraculous part of yourself, create a life you don’t need to retreat from and help build a world in which everyone feels safe, welcome and able to thrive. And that starts with you. In today’s episode, we’re looking at ways in which, well I’m recommending one particular way in which you can honour that beautiful extra sensitive nervous system of yours and rather than feeling Gaaghh it’s overwhelming, I can’t do anything. You recognise that you need extra care, extra buffer time, extra space that you’re deserving of connecting with your own feelings and I hope that what I’m recommending will help you. With autism, with ADHD, with trauma, with AuADHD, sensory issues like hypervigilance, it’s all very much our day-to-day. And with that in mind, it’s natural that we have become, even if we weren’t born, attuned to other people’s needs and moods and potentially walking on eggshells, just wanting others to be happy, all of that. For some people it goes into hyposensitivity where it’s just too much, shut down, not doing it. and for others it’s hyper, sorry, hyper empathy as opposed to hypo empathy where that feeling, not just your ow
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