2021 Catalyst, Issue 18 – The Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
Shift Network Update
By Dr. Natasha Fallahi, co-host of the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
Have you ever been told that you’re “too sensitive”? Are you easily affected by the people, energy, and circumstances around you?
Do you often get overwhelmed by crowds, relationship drama, or work stress? Can you feel the pain and suffering of other people, animals, and even the earth?
If so, you are probably an empath, highly sensitive person (HSP), or an intuitive! The good news is that you’re not alone.
I’m Dr. Natasha Fallahi — The Sensitive Doctor and the founder of Club Sensitive — and I’m so honored to be co-hosting the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit with Melissa Schwartz, the co-founder of Leading Edge Parenting.
Trust me, I know exactly what you’re feeling. I have always been a sensitive person. Over the past decade, I have helped thousands of sensitive souls discover how to move past overwhelm and turn their sensitivity into their superpower! Whether you’re just discovering the gifts of your sensitivity or you’ve already harnessed your incredible powers, this event is for you.
Join a global gathering of leading luminaries, empathy experts, doctors, and teachers — including Matt Kahn, Dr. Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Dr. Judith Orloff, Dr. Keesha Ewers, Karyn Kulenovic, Dr. Karen Kan, David Gandelman, Wendy De Rosa, Bevin Niemann, and many more!
During this amazing 5-day event, you’ll discover:
- How to master your empathic abilities
- How to harness your sensitivity superpowers
- Tools and strategies to improve relationships
- Techniques to STOP absorbing the stress of others
- How to fulfill your purpose
- And much more...
It’s time for the sensitive people of the world — empaths, HSPs, and intuitives — to step into our power and become the leaders of tomorrow! Are you ready to join me in this deeply felt calling? If so, register for this free summit and follow along to gain the skills you need to unlock your innate abilities, build resilience, and bring your soul’s purpose forward.
The world needs our gifts — now more than ever.
The uplifting stories in this issue’s “The Nicest Thing” section come from summit hosts Melissa Schwartz and Dr. Natasha Fallahi.
Melissa Schwartz: Hi, I am Melissa Schwartz and this is my co-host, Dr. Natasha Fallahi. And we are so excited to be hosting the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit.
Dr. Natasha Fallahi: We're so glad you could join us. We interviewed so many amazing people. Melissa, I saw the list of your speakers and, wow, it was amazing.
To watch this 2-minute video and read the rest of your invitation, click here.
Would you like to join The Shift Network team?
We are seeking unique and talented individuals for important positions at The Shift Network. If you're inspired and passionate about joining our team, please click here for more information about these positions. The Shift Network is committed to creating a diverse environment and is an equal-opportunity employer.
The Nicest Thing
In this special video series, prominent authors, thought leaders, and others answer the question, “What is the nicest thing a non-family member has ever done for you?”
Melissa Schwartz’s Story
Co-creator of Leading Edge Parenting, and co-host of the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
EXCERPT: There was only one internet cafe in this very small little town, and I went out to dinner with some American students that I was on this program with and as we all know what happened on that day, somebody at the table next to us said, "Oh, are you Americans? Did you know the World Trade Center got blown up?"
To watch the video and read the transcript of Melissa’s 3-minute story about receiving comfort from the Dalai Lama in the wake of 9/11, click here.
Dr. Natasha Fallahi’s Story
The Sensitive Doctor and co-host of the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
EXCERPT: I started having these experiences where, because I was having anxiety at school or I was really stressed out, I'd stay up really late and it was hard for me to wake up in the morning. I would come late to school and Mrs. McFarland would let me kind of just sneak in and sit in her office and she would never mark me tardy.
To watch the video and read the transcript of Natasha’s 6-minute story about the teacher who provided her with the gift of sacred space, click here.
Feature Articles
What is Spiritual Bypassing from an Energy Healing Perspective?
By Wendy De Rosa, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
If you have been on the spiritual path for a while you may be familiar with the term “spiritual bypass.” Originally coined by transpersonal psychologist John Welwood in the 1980s, this term refers to a “tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks.”
Spiritual bypass is a common term in spiritual and energetic healing communities because spiritual beliefs and concepts do not always include the processing or healing of wounds, which can be necessary to integrate the spiritual and human experience of life. Spiritual bypass refers to the long-term process of staying in spiritual highs and avoiding the healing of past wounds. The term has also been used to polarize or shame people, when in fact, it points to a common denominator in most human beings, which is the ability to process painful history in the body or trauma.
To read more, click here.
What Kind of Relationship Are You Building?
By Matt Kahn, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
There are three basic attachment styles in relationships: anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, and secure attachment. Many are able to perceive these tendencies in relationship with others, but it's equally important to expand our awareness to see what kind of relationship we are building with the Universe. Through a clear view, two of these attachment styles depict the opposite extremes of ego, while the healthy secure attachment exists as a natural attribute of the soul. Let’s take a deeper look.
As an essential step forward along your path, it is important to realize it is the spiritual ego that attempts to bypass discomfort, as well as the one engaging in the endless digging of self-analysis. It’s the ego on both sides, whether bypassing as a vacation from endless inner-digging, or engaging in inner-digging as a way of course-correcting the tendency to bypass discomfort.
To read more, click here.
Energy Vampires, Empaths & Betrayal — A Painful Trifecta
By Dr. Debi Silber, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
How is an empath and an energy vampire the perfect storm? How does betrayal impact an empath differently than others? If you’ve been betrayed and wondering why it impacted you so hard, or if you’ve been told you’re making things up or being overly sensitive, lots of validation is about to come your way.
The empath is so attractive to the energy vampire (let’s say the narcissist, for example) because they serve as narcissistic supply. That means that the qualities of an empath serve as the perfect fuel, which helps to recharge, feed, and fuel the narcissist. The narcissist doesn’t have the same wiring or level of empathy as the empath, and because we just can’t fathom that this is how people are, we’re almost blind to it, until we’re not.
To read more, click here.
How to Create Exactly What You Most Desire (Right Now)
By Brandon Bennett, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
As a highly sensitive person, self-care and the way in which we communicate to ourselves is of divine importance.
I recognize, to a degree, that the same could be said for everybody.However, if you have a propensity to become over stimulated, easily take on the emotions of others, and experience life with a depth that words cannot fully do justice in describing, then the aforementioned statement rings even more truly.
What we eat, how many hours we sleep, the people we surround ourselves with, the music we listen to, the energy of the room we walk into, the passion or love we have for the work in which we do, it all matters.
To read more, click here.
Dreamwork: How Dreams Connect Sensitives to Our Intuition
By Ritu Kaushal, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
As a child growing up in India, I was often called “too sensitive.” During different times in my life, I dealt with my sensitivity by either numbing it, avoiding it, or simply attempting to hide it. There were also some long years when I felt like there was something terribly wrong with me, as if I had a crack running right through the middle of my being, as if I was a pane of glass with a fault running right through it. It took a lot of inner work to let go of this sense of being “wrong.”
In 2012, I got married & relocated to the United States. This was a lovely, exciting new chapter in my life. But with this move, the old ghosts of what it meant to be “too sensitive” came calling. In a new country & culture, I again felt out-of-step and as if it took me a much longer time to adjust to change than other people. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I be more “normal?”
To read more, click here.
Preventing Burnout for Empathic and Highly Sensitive Therapists, Coaches, & Healers
By Dr. Meg Haworth, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
If you’re a helping professional you have likely gravitated towards the work of serving others in their transformation because you’re wired for it. You’re naturally empathetic, caring, and sensitive. It’s a perfect fit for your giant heart to help others heal theirs. But you may find yourself feeling drained after sessions. You might even think about quitting the calling you love as you careen towards burnout in a body that hurts.
According to the American Psychological Association, burnout among mental health professionals ranges between 21-61%. Symptoms of burnout include a lack of feeling compassion for clients (also known as compassion fatigue), emotional exhaustion, and even physical illness. You may be sick with stress related headaches and digestive disorders from taking on the emotional weight of your clients in addition to carrying your own emotional burdens.
To read more, click here.
How to Understand & Work With Your Sensitivity & Empathic Nature
By Dr. Divi Chandna, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
We are all intuitive. Of course, some of us are more sensitive than others! For many of us who are highly sensitive, empathic, and intuitive, life on planet Earth can be a daily challenge. My journey was on taking this challenge and turning it into a gift.
Over two decades ago, my high sensitivity left me in chronic pain. I was 28 years old, and I had everything going for me. I was a physician, married to the (then) love of my life and living the dream in glorious Vancouver, Canada. Within a few years of reaching my goals, I got slammed with illness. I was crippled with debilitating pain and was unable to walk ten feet without a limp. I developed recurrent hives, allergies, bladder infections and more. It was a horrific place to be. Being a physician, I knew that the allopathic medical route would not take me to healing my body, so I searched into holistic realms.
To read more, click here.
Racial Healing & Justice
Native American Heritage Month is About How Our Indigenous Communities See Themselves!
From Rev. Dr. Aliah MaJon:
Since 1990 when the former U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed a landmark bill designating November as Native American Heritage Month, the spotlight has been upon the First Nations Peoples of our country during this month each year. The bill read in part that "the President has authorized and requested to call upon Federal, State and local Governments, groups and organizations and the people of the United States to observe such month with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities". This was an honorable and commendable act for that era; however, in 2021 we can now look to Native Americans themselves to guide us in how to truly acknowledge and appreciate what their presence brings — or how they see themselves!
As I shared in an earlier Catalyst, the Shift Network is in the process of cultivating a partnership with the First Nations Development Institute (FNDI), and so I reached out to Marisa Page, their Development Officer, for this occasion to ask her to suggest what I might include to both honor and celebrate.
Marisa offered a blog she authored for this year, the title of which is Beyond Each November: Our Beauty and Resilience Go On.
When I read her blog, these words stood out in my mind and heart:
“What we know at First Nations — and what some people just now seem to be realizing (at least since 1990) – is that Tribal people have been here since long before the beginning of the US. We helped colonize powers throughout the history of North America. We assisted the Spanish in the development of major cities in the Southwest and gave aid to the pilgrims to survive those first long winters. We taught the colonizers how to farm on unfamiliar lands, and we showed them how to track animals. Our contributions have made this country what it is today.”
Which brings me to Marisa’s second suggestion to uplift this time in alignment with her, Indigenous People, and FNDI… There is a new documentary film called Gather that showcases the movement to rebuild Native food systems, and it is likely that many of those foods were part of the learning process that went on with this country’s colonizers about how to farm on unfamiliar lands.
Here is the trailer for the documentary film as well as the accompanying website to Watch… Learn… Act…
First Nations Development Institute shares the GATHER story…
Indigenous people and their food systems are resilient. We have withstood historical and ongoing attempts to starve, change, and alter every facet of our food systems. But we hold strong to our knowledge that food is a connection to our past, to our people, and to our lands. As we continue our push for access and protection of our food systems, First Nations Development Institute is proud to introduce this feature-length documentary film on the growing Native American food sovereignty movement.
Visit Native Food System's website.
Featured Media
Is Your Empathy Making You Sick?
By Dr. Meg Haworth, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
If you suffer from empathy overload, could it be that your empathy is making you sick? Empaths and highly sensitive people are asking themselves, is my empathy making me sick? In this video, Dr. Meg Haworth shares her personal story of illness and empathy overload and how finding the emotional root cause of illness helped her heal her body with emotional health. She shares unique solutions for emotional wellness that include how intuitive development can help you heal yourself.
Watch Here
Do You Have Post Betrayal Syndrome?
By Debi Silber, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
Debi shares about her study on how we experience betrayal... What holds us back, what helps us heal, and what happens to us (physically, mentally and emotionally) when the people closest to us lie, cheat, and deceive. Her proven process, birthed from those discoveries, has helped thousands of people fully heal from betrayal; enabling them to thrive in their relationships, work, health, and life.
Do you have Post Betrayal Syndrome?
Take the Quiz!
Sacred America, Sacred World
Infused with visionary power, this book by Stephen Dinan, Shift Network’s co-founder and CEO, is a manifesto for our country’s evolution that is both political and deeply spiritual. It offers profound hope that America can grow beyond our current challenges and manifest our noblest destiny, which the book shows is rooted in sacred principles that transcend left or right political views. To order your copy, click here.
Sacred America, Sacred World is so crucial to the times we’re in that we are serializing it in every issue of Catalyst. You can read the ninth installment (as well as the previous one) here.
Movement News
Whatever Arises, Love That: A Love Revolution That Begins with You
by Matt Kahn, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
There are four simple words that point the way toward liberation and fulfillment: whatever arises, love that. This is the life-changing teaching that Matt Kahn has been sharing with millions of YouTube viewers around the world. Whatever Arises, Love That offers a collection of powerful teachings by this highly regarded teacher, providing you with a series of deeply healing insights and practices to ignite the spark of your highest potential.
As Matt often says, “The deepest invitation in any moment is to heal the root of human suffering and celebrate the Spirit in all by opening your heart to its absolute potential. In a universe of endless questions, love is the only answer.” Whatever Arises, Love That is the blueprint for a new spiritual paradigm and your companion in exploring spiritual evolution in the most heart-centered way.
Click here to order your copy.
You Don't Look Psychic: Your Essential Guide to Tapping into Your Natural Powers
By Lynnette Brown & Dr. Divi Chandna, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
Our intuition is what makes all of us, including you, psychic, but frequently, we don't get taught how to use our intuition. Intuition is just another word to describe an inner knowing that gives us information about this world and ourselves.
Despite popular belief and Hollywood portrayal, being psychic doesn’t look a certain way — doctors are psychic, lawyers are psychic, moms are psychic, children are psychic.Maybe you've already known you're psychic, or maybe this is news to you.
Either way, it’s never too late to learn how to use your psychic abilities, and it is important—now more than ever—that you learn to use them because they can change the trajectory of this planet and your life. Throughout this book, we will discover our psychic talents and learn how to use them in our everyday lives. When we harness the power of our intuition, there's no limit to what we can do and create.
Discover more about tapping into your natural powers.
The Empath's Journey
By Ritu Kaushal, a featured speaker in the Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit
Were you called "too sensitive" as a child? Were you told to "toughen up" and not be so soft? Was your sensitivity looked at as a weakness even though you knew it was the best part of you? Have you tried to numb your sensitive self, not feel as much as you do, and become more "normal?"
In The Empath's Journey, San Francisco Bay Area-based author Ritu Kaushal takes you on an intimate journey to crack open the brittle shell of false cultural stories and discover the pearl of your sensitive self. Combining personal stories from Ritu's own life as a highly sensitive person with practical tools, In The Empath's Journey will hold up a believing mirror for your sensitive soul. It will also give you practical insights to make your journey easier. Click here to order your copy.
Through God’s Eyes: Finding Peace and Purpose in a Troubled World
By Phil Bolsta of The Shift Network
Through God’s Eyes is a roadmap for living a more peaceful, beautiful life. It’s the only book that shows you how dozens of spiritual principles interact, how to weave them together into a cohesive worldview, and how to practically apply this spiritual wisdom to bring joy and vitality to your daily life.
For more information and to order your copy, click here.
To access a free sample chapter on forgiveness, click here.
Through God’s Eyes is a superb book, a truly enlightened piece of work that is an essential read for all people who are truly devoted to the care and refinement of their soul. Phil is a contemporary mystic, a man whose life is a living commitment to spiritual service. I am honored to know him.
— Caroline Myss, author of Intimate Conversations with the Divine, Anatomy of the Spirit, and Defy Gravity
One of the most important books I’ve ever read. An incredible compilation of spiritual wisdom and insight. It’s the owner’s manual God should give you when you’re born.
– Robert Peterson, author of Answers Within
For several years, The Shift Network has hosted Indigenous leaders from around the world and invited them to share their sacred knowledge, rituals, and practices to guide us in a way of living that is sustainable, healthy, and just. We’re thus delighted that the Global Indigenous Wisdom Library makes this “virtual council” of leaders and their wisdom available for everyone, everywhere for free.
The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a collection of audio and video interviews featuring Indigenous leaders from around the world sharing prayers, sacred songs, prophecies, spiritual teachings, and pathways to healing, as well as concrete examples for birthing a new era — one in which all members of the human family are treated with respect, understanding, compassion, and justice. This sacred wisdom is important medicine for us all.
The production of The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a gift from The Shift Network, designed to inspire, inform, and involve you by highlighting the voices and important messages of Indigenous leaders from around the world. We want to give a heartfelt thanks to Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. (“Brother Phil”) for his partnership in helping create this Indigenous Wisdom collection. And we thank all the speakers who have contributed to this body of knowledge. To discover more, click here.
World Peace Library. Designed for the layperson and professional peacebuilder alike, the World Peace Library has over 425 audio and video interviews with some of the most remarkable, inspiring peacebuilders in the world available to you at NO COST. You’ll find hundreds of hours of inspirational, peacebuilding, compassion-spreading talks and trainings at your fingertips with this FREE global resource. There’s no way you can’t come away from the World Peace Library deeply inspired, transformed — and part of the solution. Click here to find out how to take peace to the next level — and help co-create a global culture of peace that leaves a legacy of good for our children, our children’s children and all of humanity and life on earth.
Shift Spotlight
Experience Inner Coherence Through the Science and Spirituality of Music, Sound and Vibration — A free video event with multi-award-winning producer, composer, author, and musitarian Barry Goldstein. Learn how you can use music, sound, and vibration in alchemystical ways to move out of stress and anxiety, and into states of transformation and inspiration. Wednesday, November 17, at 5:30pm Pacific
Introducing the Emotion Code® — A Quick and Simple Method to Address Underlying Health & Life Imbalances — A free video event with veteran holistic physician Dr. Bradley Nelson, author of The Emotion Code and creator of the Body Code™. Discover an easy, yet powerful, proven approach to energy healing that quickly releases trapped emotions to resolve underlying physical, emotional, and spiritual imbalances for a healthier, happier life. Saturday, November 20, at 10:00am Pacific
Express, Receive & Feel Joy in the Sacred Power of Your Own Voice With the Brothers Koren — A free video event with transformational voice leaders Isaac and Thorald Koren, co-creators of Your Big Voice. Invite in a song to awaken your whole-body instrument for deepened self-healing, connection, life resonance... and the return home of your authentic, wondrous self. Tuesday, November 23, at 5:30pm Pacific
Discover Your Vagus Nerve as an Energetic Healing Pathway to Optimal Wellbeing — A free video event with doctor of Oriental Medicine Dr. Melanie Smith, a Certified Eden Energy Medicine Advanced Practitioner. Learn how to combine energy medicine practices with Traditional Chinese Medicine techniques to tap into your vagus nerve — to boost your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Wednesday, December 1, at 5:30pm Pacific
Mastering Ayurvedic, Chinese & Western Herbal Formulas to Detox, Rejuvenate and Heal — With world-renowned plant medicine pioneer David Crow, a leading grassroots healthcare expert. Create formulas at home using blend infusions, decoctions, tinctures, powders, and essential oils to strengthen, revitalize, and reclaim your health in a holistic and sustainable way. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Thursday, November 18
Reset Your Nervous System and Regulate Your Own Wellbeing With Dynamic Embodiment℠ Movement — With Dr. Martha Eddy, RSMT, the founding director of Dynamic Embodiment℠ Somatic Movement Therapy Training and an applied physiologist and dance educator. Explore Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Therapy to regulate your nervous system and move through conflict, stress, and trauma — using body awareness and strategies like Dr. Martha Eddy’s Active Witnessing Process℠. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Thursday, November 18
Exploring the Cosmic Mind Through Psychedelics — With author and speaker Chris Bache, PhD, professor emeritus at Youngstown State University. Examine fascinating insights into the nature of consciousness to awaken and reclaim your sacred self, recognize the true reality of what’s possible for your life… and navigate life challenges with love and focused intent. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Tuesday, November 30
Sacred Evidence-Based Mediumship — With mystic, medium, and author Suzanne Giesemann. Learn to communicate with deceased loved ones and help others make connections with the spirit world — for healing, closure, and a happier life. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Wednesday, December 1
Alchemize Your Emotional Energy for Self-Healing and Longevity With Qigong Grandmaster Mantak Chia — With Grandmaster of inner alchemy and Qigong, Mantak Chia. Harness the power of Qigong to generate inner cycles of balance, harmony, and vitality. Transform dense emotional energy that’s stored in your organs into healing biochemical reactions that mobilize energy flow, heighten wellbeing, and activate the restorative power of the elements within you. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Thursday, December 2
Catalyst Back Issues
Click here to see all previous issues of Catalyst.