I knew all my life that I was “sensitive” and could pick up on things that others did not.  I also knew that my body didn’t handle sensory stimuli the same way other bodies did.  I could easily become overwhelmed by itchy clothes, too much noise or strange smells.  High emotion in a room could send me over the edge. 

Sometimes if too much input came at me all at once, it would send me into a full blown panic attack. But it wasn’t until I began studying Sensory Processing Disorder that I really came to understand that being a “empath” isn’t just some woo-woo label that New Agers made up to make themselves feel special. I learned that my nervous system is actually wired differently than most humans.  Yes, it’s actually a scientific reality.

I like to think of Sensory Processing Disorder as science’s explanation for what’s been known by mystics as the “Empath”.  In this space, science and mysticism come together beautifully.

Revolutionary occupational therapist, psychologist, and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, Ph.D., explained Sensory Processing Disorder as a “traffic jam” within the brain.  This traffic jam keeps parts of the brain from receiving and interpreting sensory information properly.

Someone with SPD receives sensory stimuli just like other people do: smelling, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, balance, and the sense of where the body is in space, but when the sensory signals reach the brain, they get scrambled.  Not only does the brain interpret information differently, but the person with SPD may in fact actually be accessing MORE information than the average person. 

Getting flooded with so much additional information can sometimes lead to behaviors that seem odd to other people, even inappropriate.  In reality, those behaviors are completely appropriate given the experience that the sensitive person is having – which may not be the same experience everyone else is having.  In other words, he is literally experiencing reality in a new way.

The Gifted Empath

From here forth, I will refer to Sensory Processing Disorder as Sensory Processing DIFFERENCE because in my view, it’s not a disorder.  It’s a manifestation of human evolution.  Empaths, Sensitives and those with Sensory Processing Differences may well have abilities that regular people often marvel at, including the ability to sense subtle sound, light, and energy vibration, emotional subtlety and even mystical phenomena.  In recent years, we’ve seen a rapid increase in the numbers of children born with SPD.  In my opinion, this is a sign that the human race is progressing toward a superior state.  The ability to take in much larger amounts of sensory data is an evolutionary leap for our species. Continue reading →

I understand the feeling, not being able to find yourself. It does make total sense, and also… It doesn’t, if you really think about it.

There are a lot of canned phrases out there that mean something other than they say.

For example, “find yourself”. Where did you go? Are you somewhere other than where you are?

Where are you?

What’s usually happening when someone feels that way is that they are doing something that they have no idea how it benefits them…. It doesn’t feel like it does, and either you can’t see the pathway to it actually benefiting you, or it actually doesn’t.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference, especially when you are ‘subject’ to someone else’s control… Like a job, or even sometimes a young person living with parents, room mates, or the like.

When you become ‘dependent’ on something, as opposed to ‘interdependent with something’, it has a tendency to control as a means of extracting the equality that the universe requires.

Interdependence requires proactive able response from both sides of the equation, like two brain surgeons working together: Both are able. But the person under the knife is dependent on the surgeon, even if he is a brain surgeon, because his response is not able (i.e it’s hard to operate on your own brain)

Not to confuse dependent with anything wrong so to say… in a dependent environment, there are things asked of you in participation of your support, like a parent insisting a child take piano lessons. The expansion is super important and supportive, even if a child can’t yet see the value in it.

The determining factor then, in a dependent enviornment, is not you though, it is the quality of the intention of the one(s) you are dependent on…

Choice at that point becomes creating the transferring of dependence or creating interdependence. Incidentally, there is no such thing as independence, and that is most often what people mean when they say “struggling to find myself”.

What is ‘the self‘? Understand that you are made up of the same fundamental geometries that weave the very fabric of consciousness itself. There is nothing separate from you; only different expressions of the same energy.

With love,

Ray Kamille

1. Pretending to be something you’re not.

What does it mean to truly be yourself? It’s speaking from the heart and having the awareness that lets you know when to engage and when to listen. If you’ve ever held back something you wanted to say because you’re scared the reaction; you’re still not being your self fully.

Think about the energy you let off in your interactions and see how it’s effecting your peers. The point is to allow your expressions to flow while still having the awareness of knowing what to say and how to say it.

2. Letting others choose your life for you.

This is a big one we all need to understand, especially if you’re a parent! We are our own teachers, guiders and mentors. This can look like a lot of different scenarios from your friend who is a bit too pushy to parents who make you go to university. Communication is key, expressing what you want in the moment is so important to make sure everyone understands where you are coming from. Continue reading →