Sensitive Men Rising filming Wednesday in South Carolina with a mother’s story of loss, healing, and, ultimately, passionate advocacy for mental wellness, reducing suffering, and destigmatizing mental health. Susan Crooks is the founder of the grassroots non-profit Walt’s Waltz, named for her son Walt, who was tragically lost to suicide in 2019.
Susan’s story is powerful, emotional, and, ultimately speaks to all of us who are parents of highly sensitive boys. Special thanks to the film crew of Will Crooks and Will Keown!!
Anxiety has been ever-present in my life and seems to drive many of the people I have consulted with over the years, but one of the ways I have found that is useful to think about anxiety is as a sort of fuel to help us push through our fears.
As an example, even after years of giving interviews and podcasts, I still feel a moderate amount of anxiety leading up to the event. I’ve come to think of that as natural for me and useful in the sense of alerting me to focus on preparation. As the event draws near, the anxiety usually settles a bit, but I know from my own experiences, that if I can just get through the first few minutes, I’ll be off and running!
Thankfully, most interviewers are kind people and are good at helping speakers ease into the format of public speaking. Once past the initial anxieties, none of them based in any real deficiencies, I find that it is much easier to access my depth and breadth of experience to give a great interview.
For those of us who are low-key anxious people, it is good practice to think of our anxieties as a fuel to help us break through the walls of fear, of the unknown, or that result from perceived inadequacies earlier in our lives.
Yes, even high-functioning people experience anxiety. The key is how we choose to use that anxiety to either limit our growth or to enhance a growth mindset.
Sensitive Men Rising filming today in St. Louis, Missouri with our friend and HS men advocate/champion the wonderful Bill Allen! SMR Co-producer Dr. Tracy Cooper, along with Lisa Cooper on audio, interviewed Bill on his insights into what it means to “walk with confidence” as a HS man, his vision for a redefined and reVisioned masculinity for the 21st century, and how we can help HS boys and teens grow into strong, confident, and empowered HS men! Plus, so many more topics of heart and spirit sure to inspire, affirm, and build community among HS men, indeed, the entire world!
*special thanks to Bill’s delightful sister, Ginger, for her hospitality in allowing us to use her lovely home for our film set!!
Highly sensitive men are the subject of this just-released new podcast with Men on Point and our friend D.J. Paris! In this expansive conversation, we cover a range of topics of particular interest to sensitive men and that will certainly show up in Sensitive Men Rising – The Documentary premiering Sunday, the June 18th this summer.
The 2023 theme for International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality,” highlighting gender gaps in STEM education and careers — and calling attention to the online harassment many women face.
#EmbraceEquity — a call to recognize “that each person has different circumstances, and (allocate) the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
There is indeed enough sunshine for ALL women leaders to SHINE!! 1340’s Center for Creative and Conscious Leadership, led by our very own dynamic woman leader and HSS/HSP extraordinaire Dr. Michele Mercer, offers a 6 WEEK Shine series for new and mid-level female leaders to help lift each other up through connecting, sharing, and supporting each woman as a rising leader and a conscious, creative leader of the NOW, and the future!
For senior executive and mid-level women leaders, the Lounge 100 offers a unique 6 month series of small cohort groups to build connection, gain real-time feedback, and find inspiration in fellow women leaders traversing complex trajectories and needing creative and conscious inspiration.
Women’s Leadership Lounge is a signature offering of 1340.org and I highly encourage you to check it out at the link below and share with other women leaders!
If you are a man, please know that advancing and supporting women in leadership is so essential. I’m privileged to know and support several incredible women leaders doing great things in the world!!
Second interview with our friend Scott Barry Kaufman, humanistic psychologist and cognitive scientist extraordinaire! Dr. Kaufman’s work is especially appropriate and relevant to Sensitive men in that his work is focused on a growth mindset, healing from trauma, and flourishing!
Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person is the book that I wrote for all Sensitive Sensation Seekers to better understand their traits and their potentialities and challenges.
Thrill has now been translated into Japanese and was commissioned as a 160 minute video ‘lecture’ that I completed this past December for the Japanese audience. I have often questioned why the interest level is so strong and enduring around Sensitive Sensation Seekers and have come to two conclusions:
– there’s so little out there on Sensitive Sensation Seekers and comparatively SOOOO much more on HSPs, thus, the interest level sustaining over many years.
– Sensation Seeking is an EASIER entry point to understand/allow/accept than Sensory Processing Sensitivity, meaning I have not met anyone who did not understand Novelty and new experience seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, boredom susceptibility, and disinhibition. I have met many who, when hearing descriptions of Sensory Processing Sensitivity, are instantly confused, “highly sensitive to what?” or “Ohhhh, I know those kinds of people….touchy and moody, ouch!” even, “Being easily offended is a choice….” So, two very different traits, yet one is simple to understand because it has a name that does not put anyone on the defense instantly and is easily identified with ‘fun’ and who doesn’t like a ‘fun’ trait??
The job then has been to communicate how the two traits can coexist in one human being and do so with great synergy and balance. That’s what Thrill does well.
Thrive is as relevant now in 2023 as it was when I wrote it because the way we experience career will always be similar. The opportunities that exist now for working from home or working from anywhere (digital nomads) are certainly different to some extent but the fundamental narrative around the need to adapt our lives to our needs, rather than the reverse, remains true in perpetuity…
1340’s Center for Creative and Conscious Leadership, led by our very own dynamic woman leader and HSS/HSP extraordinaire 
Dr. Tracy Cooper 