It's Good to be the King: Reclaiming small joys, emotional freedom, and the power of choosing your own internal weather.
🎧 Intro – Why I’m Still Talking
Hi everyone. I’m Leah Burkhart, and welcome back to The Healthy Sensitive—a podcast for sensitive souls trying to live awake in a world that’s still half-asleep.
This is a space for those of us who don’t just want to get through life—we want to feel it.
We’re the kind of people who tend to live like everything is a miracle, to borrow the quote often attributed to Einstein.
We notice the way light changes in a room. The shift in someone’s tone. The way our own hearts thud when something matters.
And we’re not here to tune that out—we’re here to make space for it.
There’s a quote I’ve always loved by Vivian Greene:
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
And for sensitive people, I think we’re not just dancing in the rain. We’re memorizing the smell of it, writing poetry about it, and wondering if we’re supposed to be doing it better.
That brings me to what I really wanted to share today.
🛠️ What I’m Building (and Why)
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of content I want to create.
There’s just so much noise out there—podcasts, Substacks, social media reels—and I’ve had moments where I’ve wondered if I should even add to the pile.
At first, I thought: maybe if I sound smart enough, I’ll be adding value. Maybe I should teach more. Prove I’m useful.
But when I really sat with it, I asked a deeper question:
What has helped me most when I felt low?
Sometimes, sure—I wanted information.
What vitamin could help?
How do I sleep better?
What’s the research say?
But more often…
What I needed most was just to not feel so alone.
To hear someone say, “Me too.”
Not with advice. Just with presence.
That’s part of why I’ve funneled so much energy into the Meetup groups I run. I want to create a place where sensitive people can gather and just be real with each other.
But I also know not everyone can join a live group.
Some folks need asynchronous connection.
They need the content to come to them—when they’re ready, and in a form they can take in.
So I’m building something.
It’s not done yet—it’s still in the messy, creative, patchwork phase—but I’m building a full ecosystem for sensitive people.
One that includes:
Free content (like this podcast and my Substack)
A $5/month membership that gives you access to all the live Meetup groups and coaching circles
And, eventually, a space where you can take courses, engage in community discussions, and find tools tailored to how your system works
Right now, that $5/month just covers the cost of the Meetup account itself. But here's the bonus:
If you join now, you’re grandfathered in at that price for life, even after the full system is live and has more features.
It’s my way of saying thank you—to the early believers.
And for those of you who just want to keep listening or reading quietly in the background—that’s okay too. The podcast and Substack posts stay free.
Always.
🌱 Today’s Story: “It’s Good to Be the King”
Now let me take you to the story that’s been living in my chest all week.
I’ve been thinking about my grandmother.
She was a woman with sharp wit, a minimalist’s soul, and a strong pour of scotch in the evening.
She had three kids, including my dad. And she went through something that—at the time—was quietly devastating.
Her husband left her… for a man.
And this was not a time when that was talked about or supported. It was brave. And hard. And real.
But they navigated it with grace.
He said, “If you get a child support check, it’s because I have money. If you don’t, it’s because I don’t.”
He let her keep the house. He stayed honorable.
She didn’t crumble. She figured it out.
And what I remember most is not the hardship—but the way she sat in her chair at the end of the day, a beret perched on her head, a glass of scotch in hand, and this sly, self-satisfied smile as she’d say:
“It’s good to be the king.”
It was as if, in that moment, she wasn’t waiting for anything else to fall into place.
She wasn’t chasing peace. She was choosing it.
💬 What Came Up in Our Meetup
That image of her came to me during this week’s Mindfulness Monday.
I led a group where we explored this prompt:
If money, time, and energy weren’t an issue—what would you choose to experience?
And once we imagined it, I asked:
What is the feeling you’d be chasing in that scenario?
And then:
What’s one small way you might access that feeling today—without needing the whole setup?
Because sometimes, we can skip the middleman.
We don’t need the mansion to feel cozy.
We don’t need the month off to feel rested.
We don’t need a new identity to feel whole.
What we’re really longing for is often a sensation. A felt experience.
And sometimes, we can create it with a candle. A breath. A decision. A pause.
We ended that session by writing our own permission slips:
“I hereby give myself permission to feel free.”
“To feel joyful.”
“To feel held.”
📚 Viktor Frankl and the Power of Meaning
It reminds me of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
He survived Auschwitz. Lost his family. And still wrote:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
He wasn’t being naïve.
He wasn’t saying suffering doesn’t matter.
He was saying meaning matters more.
And when we can frame even a hard moment in purpose—or tenderness—or beauty—that’s where real power lives.
🧡 Wrap-Up
So maybe today’s question is:
What would it look like to stop waiting for the storm to pass—and dance anyway?
To sip your metaphorical scotch, wear your metaphorical beret, and say:
“It’s good to be the king.”
And to know that you’re not alone.
Because you’re not just listening to a coach or a health educator—you’re tapping into a community of sensitive, deeply human people who are asking the same questions and sharing the same kinds of reflections.
If that’s a community you want to join, the link’s in the show notes.
And if you’re just here to listen quietly for now, welcome. You belong, too.
Until next time—be well, be curious, and give yourself the feeling… before the fix.
Want to join our meetup group?
Click Here: The Healthy Sensitive Meetup Group
