[00:00:02] Welcome to the Business Miracles podcast. I'm Heather Dominick, founder of www.businessmiracles.com and author of the book Different The Highly Sensitive Leadership Revolution, found at www.differentthebook.com. Since 2010, I've been training Highly Sensitive Entrepreneurs and Leaders from around the globe to work less while making more impact and income by doing things differently. I'm so glad you joined me. Listen in and get ready. Get ready for a shift in the way you view yourself, your work, your life. A business miracle.
[00:00:40] This is a Course in Business Miracles podcast episode 203 Overcome HSP Challenges to Create More Abundance. In this episode I break down the limiting beliefs about challenges that often keep us in our highly sensitive shadow behavior of overprotection and what you can do instead. I share a very personal story on resilience that demonstrates the power of accessing grace and grit, especially when in the throes of chaos and challenging times. I discuss how hope is actually a conviction that as HSPs in business and leadership, we can act to make things better by training our nervous system, accessing our HSP strengths and skills, and choosing willingness to take action all to ensure moving forward to create positive change for ourselves, those around us, and all those we are meant to serve. So listen in, especially until the end, to engage in a powerful reflection that will support you in uncovering the confidence you need to cope with fear and uncertainty as you enter into and through the year ahead. All right, let's go.
[00:02:09] Grace and grit are key parts of shifting from resistance to resilience. This shift is a necessary constant for us as HSPs committed to empowerment, committed to business and leadership success. This shift from resistance to resilience is going to be required more than ever in 2025. Please write that down.
The shift from resistance to resilience is to move out of negativity and build toward what is wise and good. Please write that down. To move out of negativity and build toward what is wise and good. Resilience is the quality that allows us to come back from challenges stronger. Let's write that down. Resilience is the quality that allows us to come back from challenges stronger, especially after we've been pushed around. Let's write that down, especially after we've been pushed around, pushed around emotionally, pushed around mentally, pushed around spiritually and cancel clear, delete pushed around physically. Resilience is the quality that allows us to come back from challenges even stronger.
Focusing on that key word of challenges. So take a moment, underline, highlight, circle, put some stars around, anything that's going to support standing that word out in your notes.
As HSPs it is our shadow default tendency in the face of challenges to go into overprotection. But what I'm going to offer is even one step further and deeper, which is to go into overprotection even before a challenge occurs. What drives that tendency? What tends to drive that tendency first and foremost is physiological based on past and previous experiences as being faced with a challenge and not being able to handle it. Hitting stop rather than accessing grace. The belief that tends to materialize from that physiological neural pathway run is, challenges are bad.
Taking that limiting belief one step further, I should not experience challenges. Taking that limiting belief neural pathway one step further, if I experience challenges I am bad. That is self persecution.
We want to recognize that what in our businesses, what in our lives are rising as a challenge is meant to be used or helpful feedback. Write that down. We want to learn from our challenges because not only are challenges, normal challenges are necessary. Write that down.
Amazing, incredible innovations and changes arise from challenges. Write that down. Amazing innovation and changes arise from challenges. Challenges require us to access empowerment actions such as coach. Challenges call on us to move into action as creators. Challenges call on us as HSPs to utilize specific strengths that we are coded with such as intuition for innovative solutions, such as creativity for or creative inspired ideas, such as empathy or decisions that consider all peoples involved in any type of situation, especially challenging situations. So again, challenges are normal and challenges are necessary.
It's only our shadows and drama tendencies that get in the way. It's shadow and drama tendencies that hold us back, slow us down, or even bring us to a stop rather than grace, grit and resilience. Grace, grit, and resilience are going to be more necessary than for us as HSPs in business and leadership in 2025.
So here's a personal story. The Monday before American Thanksgiving, my husband had major surgery, he's fine. He made it through preventative knee surgery. I won't go into the details but talk about innovation, talk about creativity, incredible and talk about massive healing impact.
This is a guy who loves to be active, which is part of why he chose this preventative proactive surgery. Yet coming home facing three initial weeks of hardcore home rehab, followed by three additional weeks of additional out of the home rehab based, followed by another couple of months of additional rehab until he'll really be able to get back to doing the things that he loves to do and the way that he loves to do them. So a lot being called upon each of us following that surgery in that first week, particularly myself, having to help and support him with basic things like putting on socks, basic things like walking to the bathroom in addition to managing then everything for our household and things that are usually shared, falling specifically on me.
All good first week, lots of movie watching. Going into week two he goes back to work virtually. Both of us, blessed to be able to do so to work from home. Now first day back, Monday. My husband does evening sessions, so in the evening last session of his day, I'm in the kitchen preparing roasted vegetables, both in the oven and in the air fryer. And suddenly I see my husband hobbling quite quickly out into the kitchen, very alarmed and letting me know there seems to be a flood happening in our bedroom bathroom, which is also the area that he works from when he works from home. So I go rushing back, the video is on. He's assuring me that his clients cannot see me. I'm looking to the bathroom and I'm seeing literally a waterfall gushing down the bathroom wall, spreading throughout the entire bathroom and into one of the bedroom closets.
Quickly moving him into my office so that he can finish his session while I proceed to gather every single towel that we possibly own, trying to minimize the incredible pool of water that is forming, turning our bathroom into a place where definitely a goldfish would be able to swim. I see suds are part of this waterfall that is raining down, which makes me think upstairs neighbor either tub or washing machine. So I go bounding out, literally taking stairs two at a time, wrapping on the door, getting the neighbor calling the super. Could not even. So in addition to major surgery, not really being able to move, handling the majority of household tasks on one of us only. And now a massive bathroom flood. Oh, and by the way, two days before the pipe in our kitchen sink burst and when I was roasting vegetables, I broke a glass.
So part of me is like, is this mercury retrograde? And the other part is, wow, not once did I go into that high anxiety panic HSP pushing place that I knew and lived in so well for so long. But instead, nervous system calm, able to access creative, taking action, getting everything resolved as quickly and smoothly as possible. Is it my choice? Absolutely not. Could I have easily gone into victim? For sure. A microcosm of a macrocosm of what potentially 2025 holds. Things that are out of control, experiences that feel completely chaotic, moments when it's as if the world is raining down upon us.
Resilience, from the book “Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier” by Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey.
“Optimism is the belief that things will turn out all right. Hope makes no such assumption, but is a conviction that one can act to make things better in some way.”
Bringing our attention to the word conviction, the official definition of conviction. A firmly held belief or opinion. Please write that down. Conviction, A firmly held belief or opinion. For us as HSPs in business and leadership, hope is a conviction.
Hope is a conviction that one can act. Hope is a conviction that one can act to make things better. I bringing our attention to the word act and the energy behind the word act is the word will. W-I-L-L. The official definition of the word will, used to express futurity, as in I will wake up. Used to express desire, choice, willingness, consent as in, I will do my best. Or used to express refusal as in, I will not remain quiet.
So hope is a conviction that as HSPs in business and leadership, I will act to make things better by training my nervous system to default more frequently to the parasympathetic response – empowerment, strengths. I will acquire new knowledge and lay down new neural pathways no matter my physical age. I will do this through community, core, practice and consistency. I will access my HSP strengths and skills such as curiosity, intuition, and heart coherence to create what success is to me in spite of what is happening for others in the world around me. I will do this by being willing to reflect from a position of hope in order to inform how I move forward to ensure positive change.
Take a moment and take this energy in. I will, I will, I will
And I will.
So now as part of this reflection it is about that next level what 2024 has prepared you for. So let's consciously begin to build up on this in support of 2025 being better. And let's write that down, 2025 being better.
So when we don't reflect, when we don't examine our businesses and our lives, it's easy to lose perspective about what really matters. So this in mind, we're going to go some heart coherence inquiry. If helpful hand can be on heart to support you. Having something to write with, something to write upon, typing if absolutely necessary, but kinesthetic is always valuable.
Starting with question number one to recall a situation or situations in the past year or life in general, if there's not something from the past year that comes to mind that seemed hopeless and how you managed to carry on. So again, taking a moment to recall a situation or situations in your business, in your life, in the last year or years that seemed hopeless in how you managed to carry on
Reflection inquiry number two, what gives you the confidence to cope with fear and uncertainty in your business and life? What gives you the confidence to cope with fear and uncertainty in your business leadership and life?
Giving yourself an HSP Coach Mastery Challenge. Summarize reflection, inquiry one, two into 20 words or less.
And together breath in and let it out. Beautiful.
[00:24:22] Thank you for being a part of this Business Miracles podcast episode and for beginning to dip your toe into the journey of highly sensitive leadership training. If you are ready to truly use your sensitivities as strengths in all parts of your work and life, I invite you to connect for a one on one chat. You will experience being deeply listened to and together we'll get a sense of whether the Highly Sensitive Leadership Training Programs are the best next step for you and your highly sensitive journey at this time. Just go to www.claritycall.com to schedule a conversation. We so look forward to connecting with you. Talk to you soon!
