Breaking Labels podcast

What Is a Highly Sensitive Person or Empath? with Kristen Schwartz

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“It’s easy to be in the brain, it’s hard to be in the body,” says Kristen Schwartz, self-proclaimed Realized Empath. Kristen explains that she went through most of her life as a high achiever, repressing her trauma in a career that she believed would make her worthy in the eyes of the world. However, six years ago, on what Kristen calls her dark night of the soul, she hit a wall, met herself in the dark corner of a room, and began her spiritual awakening.

It was that night was when Kristen realized that she was an empath, someone who feels the emotions of others in their own body. Over the years, Kristen had not only compounded traumas of her own, but she has also internalized the traumas of others. After undergoing severe bullying and physical abuse at a young age, Kristen learned to fear her own body, which served as a source of both her own trauma as well as the triggering experiences of those around her.

Since beginning her spiritual awakening, Kristen is still peeling back the layers of her internalized trauma in her search for self-discovery, self-worth and self-love. She has also become a coach for empaths and highly sensitive people who, like her, need to establish the toolkit necessary to begin their own healing journeys. Most recently, Kristen published a book titled The Healed Empath, a guide to transforming trauma and anxiety and moving from overwhelm to empowerment. It’s is set to hit the shelves this coming January – preorder your copy now using the link below!

Tune into this week’s episode of Breaking Labels for a conversation with Kristen about learning to love yourself after trauma. Learn about the difference between empaths and highly sensitive people, why anchor traumas make us more susceptible to future traumatic experiences, and why reconnecting with our bodies is the first step towards stepping into our truest selves.

Quotes
• “I didn’t realize I was an empath until about six years ago, what I call my dark night of the soul. I hit a wall, and I met myself in the dark corner of a room, and I knew things needed to change, like drastically needed to change.” (06:22-06:48)

• “When trauma happens to us as children, we don’t have the capacity yet to understand who that other person is, the person that’s hurting us…. The child ends up, if they don’t have guidance or someone to help them heal it, then they become adults who believe that they are broken.” (09:15-09:38)

• “We heal trauma, we end up rewiring our brains away from trauma, with safe relationships, with attunement. That’s the thing is that it’s natural and normal for traumatized individuals to pull back from connection because they’re not safe, they don’t feel safe. But the kicker is, what heals trauma is safe connection.” (21:52-22:31)

• “I’m not here to save the world. Just because I can feel it doesn’t mean I’m here to heal it for them. It’s theirs.” (33:34-33:40)

• “When I’m talking to a client who’s triggered, I’m going to say, ‘Ok, let’s pause for a second. Can you feel your feet on the floor?....Can you feel the weight of your body in the chair you’re sitting in?’ So, you ground them in the present moment. Because when we’re triggered, we’re in our head, and we’re in the past, and so then our body starts to respond as if we are back in the moment. We’re having a full reaction to our trauma all over again.” (37:37-38:04)

• “It’s easy to be in the brain, it’s hard to be in the body, especially if the body was a source of trauma. It doesn’t feel safe.” (42:53-43:02)

• “Trauma lies to us…but we’re so desperate to ease the feelings of being triggered and activated that sometimes the behaviors that it brings up are actually the things that end up destroying us.” (49:38-49:54)

Links
Connect with Kristen Schwartz:
Kristen Schwartz, MA
Realized Empath
Healing for Empaths and HSP
https://www.realizedempath.com/
https://www.realizedempath.com/buy-my-book
https://www.instagram.com/realizedempath/

Connect with host Rosanna Gill and Breaking Labels:
• https://www.instagram.com/breakinglabelspodcast/
• https://breakinglabelspodcast.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/rosanna.e.gill/

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