Not Too Sensitive - Empowering Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) To Own Their Sensitivity

For most highly sensitive people, advocating for a physical need feels like being a burden. Jen Fitzpatrick, a celiac advocate and founder of the Confident Celiac Community, joins Alissa to talk about the years she spent staying quiet about her own needs and the shift that finally changed it.
The tension is one a lot of HSPs with a chronic condition know well. Speaking up is what keeps you safe, but every people pleasing instinct says stay quiet instead. Alissa and Jen unpack why that instinct runs so deep and how to move through it anyway.
Pulling from Jen's diagnosis story, a study abroad trip where she watched everyone else eat what she couldn't, and Alissa's own experience navigating her daughter's recent diagnosis, the conversation moves through shame, community and self worth.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why highly sensitive people are especially likely to stay quiet about a chronic health need
Jen's own story of cross contamination scares and learning to advocate for herself after years of people pleasing
The simple swap that changed everything for Jen, saying thank you instead of sorry
Why choosing ten seconds of social discomfort is almost always worth it over days of physical pain
How finding community turned a hard diagnosis into something less isolating for both Jen and Alissa

Follow Jen:
Website: https://www.thenomadicfitzpatricks.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenomadicfitz
Self-Love Toolkit: https://the-nomadic-fitzpatricks-gluten-free.teachable.com/p/celiac-self-love-toolkit-1059254

Uncover your sneaky internal belief that’s stopping you from being your most confident self TAKE The FREE Shadow Archetype Quiz NOW
Learn my 6-step process for managing & neutralizing your triggers as an HSP in our FREE UN-Botherable Workshop!
Join the Not Too Sensitive Club 🦋 My group coaching container for highly sensitive women where self-doubt becomes certainty, second-guessing turns into self-trust, and overthinking transforms into rock-solid intuition. CLICK HERE to learn more!
Follow Alissa on Substack: https://substack.com/@lifebyalissa
As a special bonus, I want to give you FREE access to my workshop for HSPs called Not "Too Sensitive" (usually $35)!
All you have to do is:
Leave a written review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts
Email a screenshot of your review to hello@lifebyalissa.com

That's it! 😊
🦋🦋🦋
Follow along on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@lifebyalissa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode, Alissa breaks down why every hard season is building something in you that easy seasons never could, tracing the idea back to astrology, her own birth chart, and a realization that caught her off guard through her daughter Blaine's health diagnoses.
She walks you through how to see every uncomfortable, triggering situation as character development and opportunities for growth.
In this episode, you'll learn:
What your North Node and South Node reveal about your natural strengths versus the traits you're still growing into
How raising her daughter through celiac disease and Type 1 diabetes diagnoses is developing the structured, disciplined side of Alissa that used to feel completely foreign
Why a demanding boss, an unexplained health symptom, or another uncomfortable dynamic might be pointing to a part of your character that's ready to develop
The difference between staying in a toxic environment and choosing a challenge that's actually building you
What the growth gap is and why the space between your old identity and your new one feels so uncomfortable
Why letting fear of judgment, like worrying what old classmates will think, keep you from starting something is really just self-sabotage in disguise

Uncover your sneaky internal belief that’s stopping you from being your most confident self TAKE The FREE Shadow Archetype Quiz NOW
Learn my 6-step process for managing & neutralizing your triggers as an HSP in our FREE UN-Botherable Workshop!
Join the Not Too Sensitive Club 🦋 My group coaching container for highly sensitive women where self-doubt becomes certainty, second-guessing turns into self-trust, and overthinking transforms into rock-solid intuition. CLICK HERE to learn more!
Follow Alissa on Substack: https://substack.com/@lifebyalissa
As a special bonus, I want to give you FREE access to my workshop for HSPs called Not "Too Sensitive" (usually $35)!
All you have to do is:
Leave a written review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts
Email a screenshot of your review to hello@lifebyalissa.com

That's it! 😊
🦋🦋🦋
Follow along on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@lifebyalissa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

When someone's energy feels a little different than usual, quieter, colder, more reserved, your mind starts filling in the silence with a story about what you did wrong.
This week Alissa breaks down where that hypervigilance actually comes from and why your mind rushing to assume the worst rarely has anything to do with what's actually happening.
Pulling from her own patterns and stories from women in the Not Too Sensitive Club, Alissa walks through how to catch the spiral before it takes over.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why your mind rushes to fill in the silence when someone seems distant or short with you
The childhood origin of hypervigilance and why it gets mistaken for high sensitivity
How to create space between a triggering moment and the story you decide to believe about it
The exercise for completing the anxiety loop and realizing you could survive the worst case scenario
Why overcompensating to win over a cold or quiet person is really about your own comfort, not the connection
How choosing a new response in triggering moments builds a steadier, more confident identity over time

Uncover your sneaky internal belief that’s stopping you from being your most confident self TAKE The FREE Shadow Archetype Quiz NOW
Learn my 6-step process for managing & neutralizing your triggers as an HSP in our FREE UN-Botherable Workshop!
Join the Not Too Sensitive Club 🦋 My group coaching container for highly sensitive women where self-doubt becomes certainty, second-guessing turns into self-trust, and overthinking transforms into rock-solid intuition. CLICK HERE to learn more!
Follow Alissa on Substack: https://substack.com/@lifebyalissa
As a special bonus, I want to give you FREE access to my workshop for HSPs called Not "Too Sensitive" (usually $35)!
All you have to do is:
Leave a written review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts
Email a screenshot of your review to hello@lifebyalissa.com

That's it! 😊
🦋🦋🦋
Follow along on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@lifebyalissa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This week's episode comes from a riff request in the Not Too Sensitive Club group chat, a question about how to stop taking it personally when someone seems committed to disliking you, especially when you're wired to feel that discomfort in your body.
It's uncomfortable to sense someone judging you, and every instinct says to win them over. Alissa offers a different move: recognizing whose story this actually is.
She walks through what projection usually means psychologically, the energetic practices she uses before and after being around someone who triggers this, and why she'd rather be disliked for being herself than loved for shrinking.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why someone projecting negativity onto you is usually about an unexamined part of them, not evidence of something wrong with you
The difference between setting a boundary with someone and pretending their treatment of you doesn't hurt
How to use an energetic bubble and cord cutting before and after spending time with someone who triggers this pattern
Why staying small and people pleasing can protect you from the discomfort, but why that's not the goal
How to let someone's dislike of you be their thing to carry instead of yours

Uncover your sneaky internal belief that’s stopping you from being your most confident self TAKE The FREE Shadow Archetype Quiz NOW
Learn my 6-step process for managing & neutralizing your triggers as an HSP in our FREE UN-Botherable Workshop!
Join the Not Too Sensitive Club 🦋 My group coaching container for highly sensitive women where self-doubt becomes certainty, second-guessing turns into self-trust, and overthinking transforms into rock-solid intuition. CLICK HERE to learn more!
Follow Alissa on Substack: https://substack.com/@lifebyalissa
As a special bonus, I want to give you FREE access to my workshop for HSPs called Not "Too Sensitive" (usually $35)!
All you have to do is:
Leave a written review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts
Email a screenshot of your review to hello@lifebyalissa.com

That's it! 😊
🦋🦋🦋
Follow along on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@lifebyalissa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this solo episode, Alissa names the exhaustion of shape shifting to fit an imagined mold of what's acceptable, and offers the alternative: deciding, every day, who you are and how you want to show up.
Sparked by comments on a viral Instagram post about owning being "too much," Alissa calls out the excuse that other's won't let you be your true self. She's not buying the narrative that other people's discomfort is proof something is wrong with you.
Pulling from her own story and pattern she keeps hearing from women in the Not Too Sensitive Club, she shares ways you can take back your power and decide who you are going to be.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why trying to fit into everyone's idea of acceptable costs you pieces of yourself
The real difference between wanting connection and needing everyone's approval
What moving to California from Minnesota taught Alissa about owning her differences instead of hiding them
Why overthinking after a social interaction is your nervous system reading it as a threat to belonging, not a character flaw
How self-worth changes the entire experience of imperfect social moments
Why healing your triggers matters as much as understanding where they came from

Uncover your sneaky internal belief that’s stopping you from being your most confident self TAKE The FREE Shadow Archetype Quiz NOW
Learn my 6-step process for managing & neutralizing your triggers as an HSP in our FREE UN-Botherable Workshop!
Join the Not Too Sensitive Club 🦋 My group coaching container for highly sensitive women where self-doubt becomes certainty, second-guessing turns into self-trust, and overthinking transforms into rock-solid intuition. CLICK HERE to learn more!
Follow Alissa on Substack: https://substack.com/@lifebyalissa
As a special bonus, I want to give you FREE access to my workshop for HSPs called Not "Too Sensitive" (usually $35)!
All you have to do is:
Leave a written review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts
Email a screenshot of your review to hello@lifebyalissa.com

That's it! 😊
🦋🦋🦋
Follow along on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@lifebyalissa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠