Ritu Kaushal's Blog, page 9

A paper notebook is like a walled garden.

I was listening to this interview in which Chase Jarvis interviews Austin Kleon and this line jumped out at me. I thought Austin put it so beautifully, this feeling those of us have who love to write by hand. A paper notebook really is like a walled garden.

I wrote parts of The Empath’s Journey by hand in cafes and libraries. And when I first started writing many years ago, I did scores of writing exercises by hand. It felt magical, as if I was unearthing some undiscovered part of my...

As Highly Sensitive People, We are Similar, Yet Different.

Putting together the puzzle pieces of our highly sensitive life can feel hard because, of course, highly sensitive people are not ONE homogenous group. We are all different people with our own experiences, our own challenges & our own traumas.

In this post, I want to talk about some highly sensitive people who have unique puzzle pieces to give us or are working in very specific ways with HSPs. Here we go!

Highly Sensitive People Focusing on Diverse Topics.

I have written ...

“To think independently of other human beings is impossible, and if it were possible, it would be undesirable.”

In these shelter-in-place times, this quote by Alan Jacobs from his book How to Think jumped out at me: “To think independently of other human beings is impossible, and if it were possible it would be undesirable. Thinking is necessarily, thoroughly, and wonderfully social. Everything you think is a response to what someone else has thought and said. And when people commend someone for “thinking for herself” they usually mean “ceasing to sound like people I dislike and starting to sound more...

Online Event for Highly Sensitive People, Hosted by East West Bookshop.

I am back at the wonderful East West Bookshop on February 18, 2021 in an ONLINE event in which I will talk about energetic boundaries for highly sensitive people. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed by other people’s feelings, if their anger or worry almost jump out at you & make it hard for you to say No, you’ll find this talk especially helpful.

Energetic skills are foundational. They help us set psychological boundaries with other people. If we are always swamped with other peopl...

Brene Brown & Cheryl Strayed’s Favorite Books, How Birds Help Us Beat the Blues, and More.

As highly sensitive people who process everything deeply, it can feel easy to get overwhelmed by the negative. We need as many booster shots of positivity as we can get. One of the ways I nourish myself is by listening to interesting podcasts. Here’s a round-up of what I’ve been dipping into lately.

Interesting, insightful, and nourishing podcasts for highly sensitive people.

My most recent & favorite discovery is 3 Books with Neil Pasricha, The New York Times bestselling autho...

Sensitive Evolution’s 2021 Empowerment Guide for Highly Sensitive People!

My article on The Biggest Mistake Highly Sensitive People Make While Practicing Grounding is part of Sensitive Evolution’s 2021 Empowerment Guide for Sensitive People, an amazing blog series that features articles by sensitive leaders like Jacquelyn Strickland, Ane Axford, Tracy Cooper, Esther Bergsma and Jody Day. 

Grounding is simple, but not easy.

2020 was, needless to say, a challenging year. Many of us had moments of feeling spaced out & ungrounded. If you tried grounding exer...

50 Things that Made My 2020.

1. I funneled my tendency to collect information by curating it on this site & passing it on to friends, such as this cool book on Awakening the Ancient Power of Snake.

2. When quarantine started, I made a Possibilities List, which was a reservoir of ideas (such as online groups to try) that helped me connect and learn. This year also helped me value my adaptability as a strength and has given me insight about how adaptability is even more powerful when it has a clear understanding of ...

Something To Try: Make a “Possibilities List!”

A reader articulated this name for the kind of lists I tend to make. Soon after the shelter-in-place began in March, I made a possibilities list for myself — a reservoir of ideas to dip into.

This included online groups to connect with, writing workshops I was interested in, and new tools to try. And as I came across new resources, I kept adding to the list.

I’ve made lists in the past, often for books that I “might” read. But having this “activities list” helped me use my adaptabi...

Harry Potter & Philosophy, A Little History of Philosophy & More Books to Make Meaning!

Lately, I have been feeling this need to find meaning in what feels like a crazy world. I feel pulled towards reading books on philosophy.

So, I have asked around, researched and put together this list of philosophy books. Ill probably not read all or even most of these, but I find that having a list is like having a reservoir to dip into.

If you are feeling the need to think about the world in a new way as a highly sensitive person, you might enjoy one of these books on philosophy.

A...

Why does being empathic feel like a Catch 22?

If you are a highly sensitive person or an empath, there have probably been at least a few times when you’ve felt that you have an unsolvable problem on your hands.

You don’t want to stop being empathetic, but your empathy seems to keep pulling the wrong people towards you. You give people the benefit of the doubt, and then, get entangled with narcissistic and controlling people.

That wouldn’t ever happen to someone who had drawn a hard line in the sand.

After you have had ye...