For HSPs struggling with people-pleasing, there's a crucial element that's often missing:

the body.

A somatic approach can help you create a life that honors your sensitivity and kindness without sacrificing your wellbeing. 

Imagine a life that's authentic and fulfilling, where you harmoniously communicate your boundaries without guilt. 

5 Ways Somatic Awareness Can Help You Strike a Balance Between Helping Others and Honoring Your Own Needs:

1. Unmasking Your Body's Messages: People-pleasing often involves ignoring our bodies' cues. HSPs, in particular, though we’re attuned to our internal world, might numb our pain as a way to avoid saying no. Somatic awareness helps us reconnect with our bodies and understand the messages they're sending. Through practices like gentle movement, you can learn to identify tension in your shoulders (from all the weight loaded there), tightness in your chest (anxiety around causing heartache), or a clenched jaw (suppressing frustration).

2. Releasing Emotions: People-pleasing can lead to a buildup of unexpressed feelings like anger, resentment, and overwhelm. Trauma-informed somatic practices like yoga, breathing, and guided body scans can help unstick these emotions in a comfortable (yet brave) environment. By physically releasing tension, HSPs can begin to let go of the emotional burdens associated with people-pleasing.

3. Grounding and Soothing: HSPs are prone to feeling overwhelmed by external stimuli. Somatic awareness includes simple tools you can use to ground yourself and create a sense of safety within your body. Progressive muscle relaxation and slow, fluid yoga encourage balance, harmony, and stability. Learn how to honor your sensitivity and regulate your nervous system without relying on external validation.

4. Building Self-Trust: People-pleasing often stems from a lack of trust in our own needs and desires. Somatic awareness can help you reconnect with your inner wisdom. Through movement exploration and journaling prompts that focus on body sensations, you can learn to trust your intuition and make decisions based on what feels right for you, not based on others’ agendas.

5. Embodied Boundaries: Saying no isn't just about words; it's about embodying the feeling of self-worth. Body agency can help you connect the feeling of "no" with physical sensations. You might feel the strength in your core as you say no, or visualize a cozy blanket or a friend who has your back. But it’s not just about the no, it’s deciding what you’re saying YES to! By connecting the physical with the emotional, HSPs can learn to set boundaries with greater confidence.

By incorporating somatic practices into your healing, HSPs can move beyond talking about your struggles. You can start to heal from the inside out, developing a deeper connection with your body and reframing your sensitivity to help prioritize your wellbeing. This mind-body approach empowers HSPs to move away from a place of people-pleasing to a life of self-compassion, authenticity, and empowerment.

You won’t sacrifice what matters most. You’ll still be the kind and loving person that you’ve always been. Now you’ll become a better friend to yourself.

I understand how easy it is to lose touch with ourselves when we're busy taking care of everyone else. That's why I'm running Beyond People Pleasing as a LIVE program over 4 Saturdays:

Beyond People Pleasing: 3 Keys to Thriving as an Empath

LIVE Online Gentle Yoga & Journaling
4 Saturday Workshops: May & June 2024 

Transcript:

Highly sensitive people struggling with people pleasing?

Does any of this sound like you?

"Helping others feels good, but sometimes it leaves me feeling emotionally raw. I absorb the stress of others like a sponge, their anxieties and frustrations seeping into me. I'd like just a little time to myself so that I can recharge before the next energy drain."

"The pressure to please others makes me feel like I'm never doing enough. My own needs are forever at the bottom of the list."

"Saying no feels like a Herculean effort. The word gets stuck in my throat, choked by the fear of disappointing someone. In the moment, it's just easier to agree. So I nod and smile while already feeling drained and resentful. Why does everyone rely on me? Don't they know that I can't do it at all?"

[00:00:53] Imagine creating a life for yourself that honors your sensitivity and kindness without sacrificing your well being.

Where you find a balance of harmony and boundaries without being burdened by guilt.

A life that feels both authentic and fulfilling.

Where you have the energy to help others and also you honor your own needs.

For highly sensitive people struggling with people pleasing, there's a crucial element often missing: the body:

[00:01:24] a somatic approach.

Somatic just means awareness of your body. About your body.

So there are a couple of ways that this somatic awareness can help.

[00:01:37] Unmasking your body's messages.

People pleasing often involves ignoring our own body's cues. Highly sensitive people in particular, although we're attuned to our inner world, might numb our pain, but of course we can only do that for so long before we burn out.

Somatic awareness helps us reconnect with our bodies so that we can understand the messages they're sending.

Through practices like gentle movement and body scans, you can learn to identify the tension in your shoulders, from all the weight loaded there, tightness in your chest, from anxiety around causing heartache, or a clenched jaw from suppressing frustration.

[00:02:23] Somatic awareness gives you a chance to release your emotions through your body. You might've heard "the body keeps the score" or "the issues are in the tissues." your body might start to feel better when you release some of the burden of tension you're carrying around.

People pleasing in particular can lead to buildup of unexpressed feelings like anger, resentment, overwhelm. Trauma informed practices like yoga, gentle movement, breathing, guided body scans, can help unstick these emotions in a comfortable environment.

By physically releasing tension, HSPs can begin to let go of the emotional burdens associated with people pleasing.

HSPs are prone to feeling overwhelmed by external stimuli.

[00:03:13] Somatic awareness includes simple tools you can use to ground yourself and create a sense of safety within your body.

Encourage balance, harmony, and stability.

Learn how to honor your sensitivity and regulate your nervous system without having to rely on external validation.

[00:03:32] These body based practices can help us to build self trust. People pleasing often stems from a lack of trust in our own needs and wants. Somatic awareness can help you reconnect with your inner wisdom, which is really strong.

[00:03:51] Through movement exploration and journal prompts that focus on body sensations, you can learn to trust your intuition and make decisions based on what feels right for you, not based on others agendas.

[00:04:04] And finally, the B word, embodied boundaries. And it is not as scary as it sounds. You might have felt like you had your boundaries crossed many times, but we're going to reframe boundaries in a way that makes more sense and is more empowering. When we're talking about centering in the body, we can think of the core. Connecting with our core, our integrity around the spine, through breath, and through movement practices, can help us feel that saying no isn't just about words. It's about embodying the feeling of self worth.

Body agency can help you connect the feeling of no with physical sensations.

You might feel the strength in your core as you say no. Or visualize yourself wrapped in a cozy blanket. or a friend who has your back.

But it's not just about the no.

It's deciding what you're saying yes to!

By connecting the physical with the emotional, HSPs can learn to set boundaries with greater confidence.

[00:05:07] By incorporating somatic practices into our healing, HSPs can move beyond simply talking about our struggles. We can start to heal from the inside out, developing a deeper connection with our body, and reframing our sensitivity to help prioritize our well being.

This mind body approach helps highly sensitive people to move away from a place of people pleasing to a life of self compassion, authenticity, and empowerment.

I want to assure you that you're not going to sacrifice what matters most. You'll still be the kind and loving person you've always been. Now you'll also become a better friend to yourself.

[00:05:52] If you'd like me to guide you through a gentle, but powerful somatic journaling practice designed specifically for those who tend to put others first, I've got a three minute practice and it's right here. Go ahead and watch that. It's three minutes long and you'll get a really good sense of how I guide the journaling and how you can start to befriend yourself.

[00:06:16] A couple of things you can expect to uncover:

Understanding your core values is first and foremost. Recognizing your body's sensations rather than numbing them out. Assessing your own nervous system.

If you want self regulation tools, they are all over this channel, Healthy Happy Yoga, and if you subscribe, you're going to get self regulation tools and more.

Celebrate small successes. We really can't make change without celebrating. Every time you notice even the smallest victories, acknowledge those. This is crucial to creating habit change.

[00:06:51] So go ahead and watch that video. Remember to subscribe to healthy happy yoga because we are on this journey together and I want to walk beside you as you take that first step toward more profound self awareness and self care.