Noticing Body and Rash More

 Written By Don Shetterly

One of the things I've noticed since some of the major healing session work I had done last Monday is how much more I notice.  Okay, I'm not talking about the itching or feeling the rash, I'm talking about what kicks it up.


Before the healing session work, I just noticed constant itching and burning from the rash.  It was uncomfortable.  It was not easy to deal with, and the warm summer weather made it worse.  I just could not articulate anything that kicked it up as it seemed to have a mind of its own.

Since the healing session, I've noticed the little things that kick it up.  I've seen how things kick up the body temperature in me where it feels like my body is consumed by fire.

The rash seems to act as a barometer for me in the little moments that most of us don't notice in a ay.  Even the slightest word or thought or comment kicks it into high gear.

Now, I'm noticing how my body temperature rises instantly, or at least it feels like an increase.  It goes from normal to feeling as if my body is on fire and being consumed.

I am beginning to see that the minute something comes along which affects me emotionally, the rash and itching start cranking up the response.  It does not take much.  At times, I find myself thinking - that's what kicked it up?  You've got to be kidding!

Yes, I know I am a sensitive person.  I pick up so much, and most of the time, it scares the daylights out of me.  Most of the time, I just shut down what I sense and pick up because it is often too much.

The rash is bringing all of this front and center.  Yes, I do realize that there are other things involved that are impacting me but to see, fully, what is going on is helping me.

Before this, I was oblivious to all that was involved which makes it hard to heal something.  Now, I'm seeing the little pieces and am more aware and in control of what is happening.  This puts me in the driver's seat, rather than just someone along for the ride.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Coming To Terms With Masculine And Feminine

For a long time, I struggled with who I was.  I knew I was a boy (and now a man), yet I was always emotional or sensitive.  In many ways I hate those words because they often pegged me as being weak. In our society, to be considered a weak man is a death sentence

For a long time, I despised my sensitive side.  Yet, it was nearly impossible for me to hide it or ignore it or run from it.  It was there.  It was who I was, but it was a painful part of my existence.

I remember having my head bashed into a wall of a laundromat by a classmate because what I considered to be normal, he took offense to and he was going to teach me a lesson.

I remember having to sit through and watch horrible TV shows and movies with shooting guns and violence in them, while I cringed and hid deep within.

I remember being beaten if I didn't cry enough, and beaten more if I cried too much.  I remember being beaten when my poor little hands would be cold from the Midwest winters and inadequate mittens.  I was expected be strong and brave and courageous and unafraid.

Being a sensitive man (person, human, etc), I've picked up things at maximum levels that most don't even realize, yet there's often been nowhere to go with that.  There's hardly any men that I can talk to and share it.  I can often share it easier with my female friends, but there is a void there.

Being a gay man who is sensitive is like another whack on your head in our society.  The alpha-male dominant screaming and grandstanding individual is what society holds up as some great leader; the man that will say it like it is and go around shooting someone or knocking them down with one punch.  I see life completely different, and this portrayal that is pushed out every day is sickening at best.

For a long time, like I said, I hated that I was sensitive.  I had just as many feminine traits as I had masculine.  I felt like it was a curse!  Why was I created this way?  This was what I constantly asked myself.

It wasn't until I met a couple of influential people in my life that started to help me see that my sensitive side was a good thing.  It was there to help not only myself but others in life.  When these people would share with me that I had a good balance of masculine to feminine, I started to learn what that meant.  I started to see that in fact, it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Yes, growing up, I got beaten hard for not being a man or "not acting like a big boy", but to this day I don't know if I ever remember my dad showing emotions other than anger and rage.  When I brought this up in a letter, I was chastised and ostracized by my family for it.  If his emotional side was ever there, I did not see it.

It is difficult in this world not only being gay, but also dealing with a sensitive side.  I see so much that hurts me deep to the core while others close their eyes.  I'm gay and I see relationships differently than much of the world sees.  I've felt hatred directed at me for who I am and I can tell you that it is painful.  It angers me when I see people who boast how much they love others and yet, they show hatred in their words, actions, tweets, and likes.

I actually think we need more men that rise up and become who they are, not who society says they are.  What most men were taught would not stand up in court, but yet we propagate it over and over, passing it from one generation to another.  We are so unconscious in our thoughts and behaviors that we don't see the pain we are inflicting upon our children and their children.

If we don't embrace all parts of our self including the mind body, soul, spirit, masculine, feminine, and the love in our hearts, we're going to run our society off the cliff.  We have choices each day in what we do and while perfection is too lofty of a goal, we need to move toward a better awareness in  life that leads us to a greater consciousness.

Don't lose hope if you're a man and you struggle with the issues I've described above, because I will be the first to say, you're okay - you're fine, just the way you are.  You don't have to be someone you are not.  To understand who you are is by far a sign of greater strength than all the macho attitudes on display these days.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Have Some Compassion For Shy People

I was heartbroken at what I saw today, while waiting to get my haircut.  There was this little girl (maybe  4 years old) who was very shy.  The little girl was getting ridiculed for being shy by her family.  It was very sad and I about tore these people apart for it.

The little girl was standing in the waiting area with her mom at the counter.  Another young girl who was maybe a year or two older came up to her and tried to be nice and friendly.  The little shy girl immediately withdrew and the other girl walked away.  You could see the shy girl all withdrawn in her body and had her arms tucked in around her body.

Her mom of course begins to chastise her for being shy and demanded that she lower her arms down.  With scorn, she told the little shy girl that she needed to learn how to be nice to strangers.  The mom ridiculed her little daughter for being shy and of course the older sibling had to make sure she did the same.

Your Issues Don't Belong To Me

I’m an extremely sensitive. I pick up so much in others and people all around me including plants, buildings, the collective consciousness and energy of the world, etc. I pick it up and I do it in a very intense way. It doesn’t shut off unless I put up walls and hide myself from the world.

So what I’m learning is to identify what issues are my stuff and what issues don’t belong to me. If I feel triggered by them, I’m starting to look at them and see what it is that I need to learn in my life or what opportunity is being presented to me. Triggers aren't fun, but if we allow them the opportunity, they can teach us great things about our life.

I’m just trying not to take all these things that I pick up on and hold them in my mind, body, and spirit or in my energy field. I’m recognizing them for who owns them and giving them back to whoever they belong to. I'm learning to release and let them go, rather than holding them as tight and endearing as a teddy bear. It isn’t always easy but as a wise healer told me recently – if you can do it 51% of the time – you’re on the right path and if you can do it 100% of the time – write the book to teach everyone else.

Do Not Disturb

The past couple of weeks have been excruciatingly difficult.  It felt like I was getting smacked in the face with nonstop ocean waves.  You know, where just about everything that seems to take place is pushing you very hard in life.  I was getting so fed up with everything that had hit me and so tired of it.

By the time I got to this one particular day, I had enough and was in a cranky mood.  I didn't want to be around anyone and I didn't want to interact with anyone.  I just wanted to find my hole and crawl in it.  It was like I had a do not disturb sign on me.

From time to time, I get that way.  It is part of my nature and my sensitivity where everything gets to me.  What most people feel intensely, I feel that much more.  In fact, take the average person and what they feel intensely and then multiply that by a thousand.  You would then come close to what I experience.  I've gotten better at handling it and dealing with my sensitivity, but at times it throws me under the bus.  When that happens, just get out of my cave as I'm going in and putting the do not disturb sign up.

Bothered By Insensitive Comments and People

Oh, how I would just love to be like all the other people in the world and function normally.  You know, where you've got a skin thick as nails and could care less what other people say or do.  Wait, that's what I wish I was like.  Maybe I should rethink that statement.

At one time, I didn't let it show and I didn't let it bother me what most people said or wrote to me, let alone how they treated me.  I just didn't care and if I did, it was treated like most everything else in my life where I internalized it.  Now, I'm at a point though where my body is waking up and I no longer store everything internally.  As a result, I'm much more sensitive about everything than ever before.

All my life I have been an extremely sensitive person.  In fact, they label my type of people as highly sensitive people.  I'm not sure I want that badge or the sensitivity at times because it seems to just make life harder.  Trying to find my way through it is like trying to sprint through a thorn patch.  It doesn't feel good, nor is it something you desire to do.

Living As A Highly Sensitive Person

Often times, it is not easy being a highly sensitive person. I am one of those people! You know, the HSP - highly sensitive persons. At one time I just thought it was a curse but now I'm learning that it does have a positive side.

When I talk about being sensitive, I mean really SENSITIVE and EMOTIONAL about things that may seem little and insignificant to most are like floods of input to me. There are many examples of just how sensitive I get. It may range from feeling like something such as a pet rock or plant is just as alive and full of emotion as a human to picking up the emotions of people I know or meet or walk past in the store. It does include my sensitivity to things around me that most cannot see like the angelic or spirit world. It is much more than that of course because the little things that seem insignificant and go unnoticed in a day are big things to me.

Some days I pick up so much that it can get overwhelming. When it gets overwhelming, I am like a turtle that just wants to crawl back into its shell and hide for the next thousand eons. When that happens, I want nothing to do with anyone except my cats and other inanimate objects or nature. Anyone that pushes me to be with them or to function in their world is just driving me deeper into my turtle shell.

Fortunately though, I am learning more how to deal with these things. I've learned that I can release the little things that build up within me through my practice of the Unified Therapy techniques I have learned. Also, I know more how to manage myself by taking time away and just spending time in nature. Nature is one of my renewal techniques that seems to put everything back into perspective and balance. It realigns me in ways that so much other stuff cannot. The sunshine is a wonderful companion to me and energizing in so many ways.

I remember growing up where it would get so overwhelming and I would run into my room crying that no one cared about me and no one loved me. It was moments where I could take no more and my sensitivity was at an all time high. I remember my mom coming in and holding me and just letting me know she loved me. Of course, my father would try to act sensitive but then after my experiences on a daily basis with him, he seemed inauthentic. Other members of my family were like foreign monsters to me at times because the world I lived in was completely different than the world they lived in.

For others around me, I'm sure it is difficult to live with me because when the sensitive side begins to take over, I'm done until I emerge back into a normal life. Some understand it more than others but in those times, I just need to know that others love and care about me but allow me to just be in that moment. Normally I pull through these rough moments but they do get intense.

While I really hated this side of me for a long time, I began to learn in life that it has positive aspects. In one way, I use this to help me in my healing work that I do because I truly sense and pick up some very deep things in people just as if they may be experiencing them in the moment. It also helps me in my creative work because I am a highly creative person in writing such as this blog, my book, music and just my approach to life. It also helps me to see a different side of the world where people who are busy screaming and looking out for themselves do not usually see. If there weren't people like us highly sensitive people in the world, the earth would tip off of its axis and fall into space.

According to Elaine Aron who wrote the book, The Highly Sensitive Person, 15-20% of the population is considered to be a highly sensitive person. She states that in the book that it is a normal trait for those of us who are HSP (Highly Sensitive Persons) and that it is biological. A Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is more aware of subtleties (just like I was sharing about myself) and is more easily overwhelmed.

So if you are one of these people that others may look at and think you are just way too sensitive, fear not, for you are normal. Learning about the trait and learning how to embrace it, live with it and deal with it can be a challenge. However, the more you learn to embrace it, the more it provides for you in many aspects of your life. Often a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is misunderstood but just know that you are normal and you're not the only one out there! At one time, I would never have admitted this either but I'm at a point now in my life where I'm not ashamed to say that I am a HSP!

If you know you are a highly sensitive person or you know someone that is, I urge you to read the following book, The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron.






For Further Reading
1) Blog Post on Highly Sensitive People And Angels
2) The Highly Sensitive Person
3) Importance Of Introverts





Blog Post & Images (c) 1/19/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only

Some Days I Feel Alone

The following was written in my journal on Oct 8, 2010.

As much as I've worked on this issue, there are still times that I feel so all alone. I am very sensitive anyway and so the slightest thing can make me feel shunned by others. But when people get quiet or don't communicate, I go bonkers inside thinking the worst. I've got a few people in life that are doing this to me at the moment and it is driving me nuts! They may not even mean anything by it but yeessh, I'm like enough. And it seems like there are times when this really bugs me more than others. This is one of those times! Some days I feel alone!

(Picture taken at Green Springs Park, Deltona, FL - (c) 05/11/10)

Curse Of Being Sensitive

Some people observe others who are happy, sad, depressed, or angry. For me personally, I not only observe this in others but then I feel all of their happy, sad, depressed, or angry feelings. I can feel these things in others from a distance. I can feel these things as a collective feeling of the environment around me. It is as if I'm watching scene after scene in a movie. It is no more difficult than that for me to pick up.

Of course, there is much more to it than my simple description above. It is highly involved. Often I fear that I pick up more than each individual actually realizes is going on within their own mind and body. Most likely, if people actually knew all that I picked up, they would run away from me in a frightened state of panic. I choose to keep this to myself in many ways as a result.

I do realize I am one of those highly sensitive people. Some days, I consider this to be a curse. Even though I know it is helpful to me in life in many different ways, being so sensitive is a heavy responsibility and load that I carry. My interaction with people are not just hello and goodbye. If it were only that easy, I would rejoice. My interactions are much more than this. I would not know what it meant, to be around others and not pick anything up.

While I do not ask for this and some days I curse it, I know it is who I am. I realize that many days I do not fully realize all that I pick up from others. It feels like a flood of information gushing from a giant hose. If I searched for a valve to stop it, I would not find one. Even after living with this all of my life, I still do not understand it. It scares and frightens me. Some days I have no rest from it.

I have been told that being sensitive is a good thing. Yet, at times in life, I feel tormented by it. When I was a young child, I grew up in an atmosphere that did not welcome it. My sensitivity did not fit in. Often, I was overwhelmed by all the insensitivity I lived around. My body felt all that was going on, while my eyes witnessed the events and my ears heard the cries. There were never enough silent tears of anguish for me to shed.

To this day and moment, I feel from such a distance to all that is going on around me. I am not even certain what all it is that I am picking up. It feels like information overload. I seek moments of peace far away from the lights, sounds, actions, movements and people. As I wrote in a poem that when I feel bombs bursting, I seek safety in the ground.

This world and this life is not an easy one to be a highly sensitive person. I have no idea if there is an easy way to live with this or if it will always be this difficult. I have no idea the shape or dimensions this side of me will take as I grow in life. Will it become clearer to me or will it disappear completely?

I would like to believe that with time, I will begin to understand more the ability that I possess. I would like to know that it would be there when it was most beneficial and would give me peace when it was not necessary. I would enjoy finding more moments of peace within my day even if this sensitivity remains on high alert. This is my hope.


(Above Picture - (c) 08/19/10)

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Reflections On My Life

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and realizing just how far I've come. Maybe that's the message I was looking for recently when I felt like I was up against the same proverbial brick wall. It was a familiar brick wall and one that seems to be there no matter what.

You see, my life has been deluged with many storms. I've been battered in just about any way one can think of that a person can be. There hasn't been too many things that I've not encountered in my life in one way or another. Some people have told me that I chose this life, which at first was hard to reconcile but the more I challenge and look at what these people have told me, the more it makes sense. I was never one to believe in past lives but too many things have surfaced to give evidence that there is more out there than what I was taught in some narrow minded churches.

When I was a kid, I never really thought I would make it through high school. I always just knew "somehow" that I was going to get very sick and the entire family would be around me wondering what to do. No one would have answers and it was a life threatening situation. As a kid, I thought this would happen before I graduated from high school but instead, it was a few years after I was out of college. And while I couldn't see the entire manner in which this would play out, it did involve my family wondering how to get me the help I needed and the doctors being unsure of what to do. Fortunately I did recover but it was a very difficult moment in my life and I did come very close to death.

All the while growing up though, I was an extremely sensitive kid. I'd cry at anything and everything. If I was separated from my mom, I'd cry. If I saw something little creature on the ground tortured or mistreated or even stepped on, I would cry. I had a pet rock and if someone would hit it, I would cry. There were people around me that could not accept that and being a boy, I was taught to be a "man" and not cry. Of course, that just made me go and hide my head under a pillow and cry myself to sleep.

The point is I was very sensitive and I picked up so much that was around me from what people were thinking and not saying to how they felt, how they responded to me or to so many things. It was like I was acquainted with a language that was not spoken or shared. Of course, the home life was not a stable, grounded life and so these things became misdirected as self sabotage for me. That led to stomach and digestive problems, self confidence issues and so many other things because I internalized everything.

By the time I reached high school, I knew I was just different than others or they were just different than me. I didn't feel like I fit in nor did I really want to. Many things I knew seemed to evade others and I was often confused that concepts which I understood were so far removed from most of the population. I still struggle with that to this day because somehow I just understand things that I have no idea where they came from.

Today, I still struggle with the self confidence and feeling like I fit into life. There are concepts which just seem normal to me but 99.9% of the population just doesn't get it! And they don't seem that concerned either.

I'm still very sensitive and really learning that this is a good thing in my life but sometimes it is overwhelming to say the least. Sometimes walking in store with a lot of people, is a major challenge for me. It is like everyone has their own life's movie playing around them as they walk by. Sometimes, I pick up the pains that these people have and then struggle to figure out if they are my pains or another person's pain.

So some days I still feel really out of place in this life and sometimes I have no way to reconcile that with anything. It is hard to find well rounded, grounded people to talk to because so many go out into all forms of la la land and they can't even see that they are in la la land. I'm learning though that all of these things are helping me grow into the person that I am. While I want everything to come together in life and know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing what it is I feel I'm being groomed for, I know that until the moment is right, there will be the feeling of a void. My sense and message is that all of this is taking place quicker than I realize but it is not time yet.

Why did I write this? I'm not sure. It may just be my way of trying to connect the dots. It may be my way of showing myself that this is going along as planned or it may be a whole host of other reasons. Whatever it is, my hands felt the need to write my thoughts down and I'll let the words go where ever they may travel.

It is my quest to understand more about my life, to heal from the storms of life and to follow that inner guidance within myself that shows me the path ahead.

Releasing Accumulated Stuff

I'm one of those people who pick a lot up when I'm around other people. Ever since I was a small child, I was always known as a very sensitive person. I can cry at just about any thing or any event that takes place. For a long time, I took on the label of being a cry baby put there by my father and as I learned as a child, being sensitive was not a good thing. That was until a few years back when I finally discovered, being sensitive is a good thing.

Since that discovery though, I have had to come to terms with being sensitive and not letting it completely rule and ruin my daily life. That's been a challenge for me to understand and while I have heard many people share many different ways to deal with this, most of them usually fell in to woo woo dust and landed on the floor. I can not say that I have completely figured it out but I have learned so many things that help me personally and I believe that this is what each person has to find out for themselves. What may work for one person, may not work for all and while there may be underlying themes to each solution, one must find their own solution.

In the spirit of me sharing what works for me, here are some of those solutions I've found.

1. I take time to be outdoors in the sun, among the trees and the birds feeling the wind against my face as I become one with all of these things in that moment. My focus is on connecting with each of these things seeing the shades and deep colors of the tree, the sky and the clouds while hearing as many individual sounds coming from the birds and the wind that I am able to pick up. As I do these things, I lose track of all that I am currently dragging around with me. It is a moment of refreshing time and a reorientation into what really matters in the day.

2. At times I just sit or stand picturing myself connecting to mother earth and it is as if my feet are growing roots that connect deep into mother earth knowing that no matter what hits me during the day or what I experience, that I am connected and grounded to the source that keeps me planted firmly on my path in life.

3. I have various music and meditations that I use at different times. Some of the music and meditations that I use are (including my own relaxing piano music that I create) :

• Don Shetterly - Relaxing Spa Music (Amazon)
• Don Shetterly - Focusing (Amazon)
• Don Shetterly - Dancing With Life (Amazon)
• Don Shetterly - Meditation Music: Healing Angels (Amazon)
• Doreen Virtue - Chakra Clearing (HayHouse.com)
• Jonathan Goldman - Holy Harmony (Amazon)
• Dik Darnell - Following The Circle (Amazon)
• Hemisync - Chakra Journey with the music of Thunderbolt (Hemisync.com)
• Epic Meditations - Guided Meditations (itunes)

4. Another thing I am using is a program called "Holosync" from the Centerpointe Institute. Holosync not only helps you achieve deep meditation but it also helps to balance the many aspects to your life. I've seen many positive results in my own life and feel it is well worth the money you pay for it. You can order a free demo CD at http://www.centerpointe.com/

5. Sometimes screaming can help me greatly but doing so in a very connected way to my body. Screaming alone may or may not help but when you connect it to your body in that deep awareness state, much can be released. One of the ways I do this is by going to my pool and working the water up in a swirl with my arms while I'm connecting my mind and body together. Than I scream as loud as I can as I'm putting my face in the water so no one basically hears me. And I just let it all out. I've done this in my vehicle as well and if you connect everything together, it will move some energy.

6. Getting body work of any kind done on me especially from those who know how to connect body work with the mind is powerful and very effective. We as a society do not do this enough and if we would, our physical, emotional, spiritual and mental health would greatly improve. While the various types of bodywork are numerous, find one that speaks to you and explore it. A couple that I enjoy are:

• Trager - Gentle, rocking movements that while feel very light to a person, the effects of this work go very deep into the subconscious and are much deeper than any massage can usually reach.
• Unified Therapy - Work created by Dr. Canali of the Evolutionary Healing Institute. It is life changing work and greatly helps to rid the body of stored energy thereby freeing your life up to be all that it can be and bringing about deep awareness to your every day life.

Of course there are so many other ways that one can relax, ground themselves and release accumulated stuff. I have just briefly touched on a few possibilities. If something works for you, please feel free to leave it and a link to more information in the comments.

Whatever you do, don't stop discovering yourself or becoming aware of all that you can be. For the more we know about ourselves the great our life's possibilities can be. The more we release all that we have stored within us, the more free we become which leads to greater health, greater awareness and a deeper peace.