Double Down On Your Own Humanity

The world is getting louder, and your system is listening more closely.

If you’ve been feeling unsettled, perhaps sleep is off, mind is bracing, and body feels tense without an obvious reason,

then consider this: what if it isn’t a flaw… what if it’s contact?

Awareness isn’t as private as we think. What’s “yours” is the ability to focus it; the field itself is shared, without an owner. So war, polarization, oppression, and fear can register in you as raw energy before your mind can explain it. Then the mind does what it always does: it rushes to a story, picks a side, digs into labels. That’s how it manufactures separation. How “the other” becomes less human. And, how our inner flood spills into meetings, families, decisions, and posts.

This is especially hard for highly sensitive people and empathic teens. Some feel the world more intensely than others. They absorb stress from people around them, worry easily, and don’t yet have the tools to understand or regulate what they feel. When this emotional load becomes overwhelming, their bodies speak for them through stomach pain, nausea, chest flutters, headaches, dizziness, anxiety outbursts, and trouble sleeping. These symptoms are real. You are not “making it up.” Your nervous system is overloaded.

The practice is simple and not easy:

Get grounded, widen your attention, and stay in the middle without collapsing.

Hold the charge in loving awareness with one hand on heart, one on belly, if needed, so you don’t spray what you feel.

For some, coaching can help them recognize emotions earlier, calm the body quickly, stop absorbing stress from others, build healthy emotional boundaries, and develop confidence and resilience. Sensitivity is a gift once you learn how to work with it.

This is not medical or psychological treatment and does not replace clinical care for specific issues; it fills a common gap by learning practical skills—breath, awareness, accurate naming, and self-regulation—so you can stay human when the world is loud. Especially when it is loud.

All this didn’t start with you; it’s moving through you; it will move beyond you.

Your work is to stay grounded and human inside it.

Here are 3 small actions you can take:

1.Humanize “other” each day.

Silently say: “Just like me, this person wants to feel safe, loved, and respected.”

Do it for someone you disagree with, someone you’re judging, or someone you’re avoiding.

2.Mind your words before you speak or post

Hand on heart or belly, one slow and deeper breath out. Inquire: “Will this reduce harm or spread my flood?”

If it spreads your flood, don’t send it yet.

3.Do one spontaneous act of kindness

Keep someone warm tonight: check on an elderly neighbor, offer a ride to a warming center, or drop off a coat/blanket for someone.