The Shift Network’s Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
Move past overwhelm and turn your sensitivity into your superpower…
Join a global gathering of leading luminaries, empathy experts, doctors, and teachers — including Matt Kahn, Dr. Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Dr. Tracy Cooper, Dr. Judith Orloff, Dr. Keesha Ewers, Karyn Kulenovic, Dr. Karen Kan, David Gandelman, Wendy De Rosa, Bevin Niemann, and many more!
Discover more about your intrinsic gift — and healthy, science-backed practices, exercises, and tools to master boundary-setting, hone your empathic gifts, and regain control of your sensitivity superpowers so you can thrive.
The world needs your light now more than ever… get the skills you need as an HSP, empath, or intuitive to unlock your innate abilities, build resilience, and bring your soul’s purpose forward.
Calling ALL highly sensitive men!! Join us Dec. 4th for the 4th Highly Sensitive Men’s Seminar from Noon-5pm CST via Zoom!This seminar moves us beyond basics to revisioning high sensitivity through the novel concept of high sensory intelligence from guest presenter, Willow McIntosh, founder of InLuminance. More than that, Willow offers his perspectives on reclaiming your authentic selves and putting that to work in the world for the benefit of all.
Sensitivity is a functional trait and it still is needed and necessary in today’s uber complex and difficult world where men with keen nervous systems and developed capacities can bring new solutions forward, help us reimagine leadership, and be role models for sensitive guys still somewhere on their journeys.
Thomas Anderson, author of The Vulnerable Man, will join us as well for a discussion of vulnerability as a prerequisite for what I term quiet leadership. Emotional intelligence, as a nice segue into discussing how we might be truly effective and inspirational leaders is to often overlooked but now we sensitive men bring it to center stage!
Our third segment of the seminar will look at the dynamic relationship between divergent and convergent thinking and examine how we sensitive men might develop a practice of metacognitive thinking that beautifully complements and enhances our deeper processing of all stimuli and experiences.
These seminars only exist because of your participation and support. Make your plans now to join us for the 4th sensitive men’s seminar that will connect you with other sensitive guys, afford you a chance to think about high sensitivity in a new way, and contribute to our ongoing discourse around the way we sensitive men choose to show up in the world.
The Shift Network’s Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
Move past overwhelm and turn your sensitivity into your superpower…
Join a global gathering of leading luminaries, empathy experts, doctors, and teachers — including Matt Kahn, Dr. Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Dr. Judith Orloff, Dr. Keesha Ewers, Karyn Kulenovic, Dr. Karen Kan, David Gandelman, Wendy De Rosa, Bevin Niemann, and many more!
Discover more about your intrinsic gift — and healthy, science-backed practices, exercises, and tools to master boundary-setting, hone your empathic gifts, and regain control of your sensitivity superpowers so you can thrive.
The world needs your light now more than ever… get the skills you need as an HSP, empath, or intuitive to unlock your innate abilities, build resilience, and bring your soul’s purpose forward.November 15–19, 2021.
Highly sensitive people may often times underestimate their ability to influence others or acknowledge their de facto role as a quiet leader. Many of the most effective leaders don’t wear the title ‘leader’ at all. They are leaders by virtue of the example they set and the respect and trust that competence and conscientiousness brings. Conscientiousness , by the way, is the only trait known to predict job success and we HSPs should rank fairly high in that category as we typically have a strong need for things to be done well.
The gist of the article centers around networking and how we come to be seen and heard by others in the workplace. Being seen and heard is often an area that the 70% of HSPs who are more introverted struggle with and represents a key area for growth if we wish to come into a full blossoming of our potential. Sometimes, we more introverted HSPs need to practice our social skills and develop greater confidence in how we speak and how people are receiving what we say. Speaking in public, whether a board meeting or before a work group, is always a proposition for overstimulation but never fear, it’s entirely doable to PUSH through that fear and learn to use that anxiety as a fuel to propel you through it.
We should all be more mindful of our status within our workplace and be cognizant of the influence we hold so that we can wield it when a project comes along that we believe in and wish to influence in a particular way. We all pick and choose how we show up in the world. Some HSPs may be quite content as influential and conscientious workers rarely being seen or heard in a traditional sense. Others may find it more compelling to be more public as they build networks of influence and spend their social capital on important issues that they feel passionate about or invested in.
As HSPs we are tasked, in a sense, with being the vanguard who possess finely tuned nervous systems keenly aware of subtle energies that register as off, negative, or disruptive before less sensitive people are aware of the same phenomenon. Being aware of early inputs, if you will, places us in a unique position of knowing how things might unfold. Especially true when coupled with a well-developed rational and creative mind that not only develops solutions but plans for the long-term. With that advance knowledge also comes a responsibility, self-assumed of course and dependent on each of us to choose our level of responsibility, but learning to use our influence wisely can lead our teams, workplaces, and, in a broader sense, or communities to better results.
How do you view your level of influence in your workplace? Do you underestimate your influence?
Highly sensitive people have long been termed the “canary in the coal mine” meaning our finely tuned nervous systems pick up on potential danger or hazards long before those with less sensitive nervous systems. Now, employers are starting to FINALLY sense that there may be a problem with burnout among employees as they leave by the millions!
Pause for just a second to let that one sink in: it’s taken the mass resignation of MILLIONS of employees to make these huge impersonal, profit-driven, corporate machines, that chew people up and spit them out, finally wake up to a problem we HSPs have known and talked about for decades…
Research cited in the article suggests that there are six key areas for improvement:
– creating manageable workloads
-giving employees control over their jobs, to the extent possible
-rewarding and acknowledging good work, either financially or verbally
-fostering community
-treating workers fairly and equitably
-helping workers find value in their work
ALL of these are areas that I wrote about in Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career in 2015!! HSPs told me about issues concerning lack of ANY feedback, lack of autonomy (a huge one for HSPs), too much to do in too short a time with too few staff, need for meaningful work, and feeling a part of something bigger than oneself. These are not new revelations that the corporate world has suddenly discovered because they are HUMAN needs.I admit to being skeptical about the long-term changes being entertained at the moment by employers.
HSPs especially need to be concerned with aligning career with their unique needs or risk being the canary that is continually alerting inside. You will very likely face burnout in conditions that fail to support your needs for autonomy, challenge, meaningfulness, or where there are ethical concerns that come into play. Self-care away all you want but if you don’t work to align your needs with what is demanded of you while you are at work the majority of your waking hours your health will suffer, both physical and emotional, your family will suffer as you return home off-balance and frazzled, and your life will be less joyful, relaxed, and balanced.
I have sadly had to witness this burnout phenomenon in a friend working 80+ hours a week, all day Zoom meetings, and so stretched thin that the result was physical collapse. It’s more than a few workers not being able to “take it,” or not being “tough enough.” It’s about a fundamental inequity between the need for companies to structure work in such a way that it both allows them to make a profit while providing working conditions that suit HUMAN needs. And, being flexible enough to understand that may look different in different people.
My intuition tells me this time it’s up to the people to take work back!! I do not know what some of these folks are doing that are resigning but hopefully they are capitalizing on the shortage and using that as leverage to demand the conditions that they so desperately need. Look, I do not mind hard work at all. I do not mind extending myself out there to accommodate an unplanned for need, but I do mind when the culture needs to shift because it no longer serves the needs of people at THIS time. In the case of culture, we all get a vote and many are voting with their feet… It’s about time….
Interview #14 with Willow McIntosh really knocked my socks off as we discussed his conceptualization of High Sensory Intelligence and so many aspects of leaning in to sensitivity as having a purpose.
Incredible material for Sensitive Men Rising, the first film about highly sensitive men, or high sensory men, if you like, directed by Will Harper, also director for Sensitive-The Untold Story. As the co-producer of Sensitive Men Rising, it is my unique and humble privilege to meet these fascinating and beautiful people in the world who are working incredibly hard to raise consciousness and serve others who may be on their own paths of self-exploration, self-acceptance, and meeting each challenge on their own hero’s journey.
EVERYONE will then have a chance to meet these wonderful men and women through the film
Sensitive Men Rising, the first documentary film for highly sensitive men, directed by Will Harper- director of Sensitive-The Untold Story, and co-produced by Tracy Cooper Phd, is IN production and rolling!! We are proud to report that we have completed 13+ interviews with more planned. The initial series of interviews utilized Zoom video conferencing due to considerations of the ongoing pandemic.
Will Harper and Tracy Cooper would like everyone to know that we DO plan to hold a number of in-person interviews, so Sensitive Men Rising will NOT be a Zoom film. It will contain segments or clips from the Zoom interviews but will center around the in-person interviews, while utilizing the Zoom clips to fill out the chapter. We chose to go this route for several reasons that we feel are important to be transparent with you about:
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has rendered travel dangerous and risky
Our initial fund raiser fell short of what we would have needed to travel, hire film crews, and cover the expenses of equipment rental
Documentary film making is a medium that is uniquely human in approach and works well with minimal approaches. With any creative effort, sometimes it stimulates further creativity to have fewer tools at one’s disposal, as opposed to every Crayon in the box. In this case, the Zoom interviews were a way to gather the deep and meaningful stories and insights from men and women around the world with stories to tell. Future interviews, done in-person, will complement and intertwine with the Zoom clips.
In the final analysis, Will and I would like to make very clear that Sensitive Men Rising WILL be a beautiful cinematic film that we will all be proud of as a community effort. Just as with Sensitive-The Untold Story, the film will utilize grand camera shots from nature and people as they truly are. In the end, Sensitive Men Rising will stand as a testament to the gritty reality that we faced in creating a film during a pandemic, with all the limitations and challenges.
NOW, we would like to invite you to consider supporting us with a new fund-raising effort through Indiegogo that will help with ongoing production costs, limited travel for key interviews, and post-production expenses, which will be significant for a film of high quality.
If you have contributed before, we humbly thank you, if you have not now is a great time to help keep our momentum going and contribute as you are able. We THANK YOU very kindly!!
Interview #13 for the documentary film Sensitive Men Rising, the first film about the 50% of highly sensitive people who are men and have been hidden away for too long. Today’s interview the wonderful David Johnson was a treat because David has long experience with various men’s groups and movements, as well as his thoughtful insights on being a world traveler and the spiritual journey that reflects the journey we sensitive men embark on when we become aware of high sensitivity as a personality trait or temperament.
David’s calm and clear demeanor is a great exemplar of the rich inner life and the way we sensitive men may come to view high sensitivity as a practice that requires many years, even a lifetime, to come to know. Our richer interior spaces where reflection meets raw stimulation and our ability to hold spaces within ourselves generates an openness and expansiveness that is missing in many men today.
Sensitive Men Rising, a film directed by Sensitive-The Untold Story director Will Harper, will present David and many other sensitive men’s stories in ways that will invite other men, and very likely women, to reflect on their high sensitivity and contextualize their lived experiences
Interview #11 for Sensitive Men Rising, the first film about sensitive men and directed by Sensitive-The Untold Story director, Will Harper, flowed very well today as I was joined by Daniel Miller, PhD, a therapist working with highly sensitive persons, including sensitive men, on a range of issues.
Dan has recently defended his PhD dissertation on the topic of identity development in sensitive men so it was a natural to explore more about his work, his findings, and his keen insights. As it turns out, and as we will all find out more about in Sensitive Men Rising, the sense of difference, of feeling out of place and perhaps marginalized, is common across age ranges among sensitive men.
So, too is the relief many of us feel and experience when we learn that our sensitive natures are a natural and normally occurring adaptation in humans that allows 1 in 5 to be more intuitive, to notice subtleties in our environments, to notice when others are suffering or in distress, and to have complex enough minds to reflect on what we experience, in service to an innate creativity and sense of compassion many of us embody.
Dr. Miller is a young leader among sensitive men and we are so very honored to include him in our film!!
Dr. Tracy Cooper 