When the World Got Too Loud, She Learned to H.U.S.H.

The Day She Stopped Saying 'I'm Sorry' for Being Sensitive

Lisa sat in her car in her own driveway, car off, staring at her front door.

She couldn’t go inside. Even her own house felt like too much stimulation.

The kitchen lights would be too bright. The hum of the refrigerator would feel like it was vibrating inside her spinal cord. Her teenage daughter’s music would seep through the walls and into her chest. Her husband would ask her what’s for dinner, and she’d feel that question like a weighted vest making every movement heavier.

She wanted just a few more minutes in the quiet solitude of her car.

“I think there’s something wrong with me,” she told me in our first session. “The world is just... too much. Everyone says I’m too sensitive, and then in the same breath they call me too much. What is it? Am I too much? or is the world too much? or is it both?”

Her eyes filled with tears, and she immediately grabbed a tissue. “I’m sorry. God, I’m always crying. I’m so sorry.”

Lisa was 47, a mother of three, a real estate agent, a part-time yoga instructor, a wannabe Reiki practitioner. She’d recently been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, but the side effects of all the meds she tried only made things worse.

“I got my Reiki Master certification three months ago,” she said. “My Reiki Master keeps asking when I’m gonna start taking clients. But I keep apologizing to her cuz I’m wasting this gift she gave me. But every time I think about taking on clients, I just... I can’t. I’m already so depleted.”

Her brain ran in 500 directions simultaneously. She had too many burners going—the real estate license, the jewelry business her daughter started but she did most of the work for, the Reiki certifications she wasn’t using, the pets (two cats, two dogs, a rabbit, and a pair of lovebirds). And the marriage to a husband who felt more like a fourth child than a partner most days.

“The grocery store is the worst,” she said. “The beeping registers, the fluorescent lights. Don’t get me started on the people who leave their carts unattended in the middle of the aisle! But it’s not just that. I can feel everyone’s stress, deep in my bones.”

What She Didn’t Know She Was Carrying

Lisa kept checklists for other people. How long since she called her dad? What her mother-in-law needed. Why the cashier at the store seemed sad. What her husband might need before he even knew he needed it. She listened more than she spoke, and when she listened, she absorbed. She kept putting other people’s stuff in her emotional backpack until it got so heavy her shoulders, neck, and upper back were in constant pain.

“I always leave family gatherings early,” she said. “And I always apologize. ‘I’m sorry, I just need to go. I’m sorry, I know it’s rude. I’m sorry.’ My sister-in-law rolls her eyes every time. She thinks I’m being over-dramatic.”

The shoulds and the supposed-tos would spar with each other inside her mind. The trying to rationalize all the things she knew would beat to a pulp in her heart all the things she couldn’t fully explain. The constant battles inside herself made her think she was just broken, too sensitive, and can’t handle what everyone else handles easily.

The Reframe She Needed

In our first session, I could see what Lisa couldn’t.

Her right brain was highly attuned—creative, spiritual, intuitive. She had synesthesia, the ability to use her five senses interchangeably. After she described the beeping of the cash registers at the grocery store, she mentioned a metallic taste in her mouth. When she spoke of the smell of the six-days-ago spilled milk in her car trunk, she described it as sandpaper across her face. She didn’t realize that her descriptions were signs of advanced perception.

This isn’t a disorder. This is advanced spiritual perception.

“I invite you to stop apologizing for being you. You’re not broken,” I told her. “You’re highly attuned. Your ‘too much’ isn’t a flaw! It’s mystical intelligence trying to come online?”

Lisa had spent 47 years believing her sensitivity was a problem that needed to be fixed, medicated, or managed.

I could see the Truth written all over the flickers in her aura. Lisa was a mystic finally coming online. She’d been doing yoga daily for about six months, and the Reiki training attunements woke something in her she didn’t know was there. It only made sense, her nervous system was upgrading.

“Your sensitivity isn’t something to overcome,” I said. “It’s spiritual discernment. You’re processing information at a much deeper level than most people. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re doing it differently.”

The Transformation

Six months later, at Lisa’s last session with me, she showed me a photo of herself at a family gathering, visibly laughing with her whole body.

“I didn’t leave early!”

In our every-other-week sessions, something fundamental had gradually shifted. She stopped trying to be less sensitive and started learning how to work with her sensitivity as the gift it actually is.

Most importantly, she gave herself permission to HUSH.

“I’ve started taking on Reiki clients. I’m really good at it. I mean, really good. I only have time for three clients a week, and I have a six-week waiting list! I was afraid taking on clients would only drain me more, but I find myself energized after sessions. It’s amazing!”

The woman who once sat in her car unable to go into her own house and apologized for everything now walks through the world with a solid confidence.

**Lisa is a composite of clients I’ve worked with over the past 20 years—her story reflects the journey of many sensitive souls who’ve found their way to my practice.**

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I’m TeriLeigh (one name smooshed together)

I believe your sensitivity is spiritual intelligence, not something to fix.

I live at the intersection of Grounded Avenue and WooWoo Way. With over 30 years of experience, I’ve taught 200,000+ students and worked 1-1 with 2,000+ clients as a spiritual mentor, yoga teacher, chakra expert, and initiated shaman elder.

I am a highly sensitive soul with hyperacusis (hyper-sensitive hearing) and synesthesia (blending of senses). I’ve turned these sensitivities into a super-power of reading chakras and auras and translating the complex energetics I sense into practical tools for nervous system regulation and emotional healing.

I’ve been through bankruptcy and found abundance. I’ve endured divorce and embraced deep love. I’ve survived unemployment and built a thriving business.

I write with vulnerable authority about the messy, beautiful journey of spiritual awakening in midlife. I live in Minnesota with my husband “Hobbit” and our wonder corgi, Tosha, turning everyday moments into mindful magick.

Ready to claim your sensitivity as your superpower?
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