58: Finding Your Authentic Self
With Lynn Salmon-Easter, Reiki Master
Do you feel constantly disconnected from yourself? In this episode, I talk with Lynn Salmon-Easter about energetically clearing away the stress and:
• The benefits of energy healing and therapeutic touch for highly sensitive people
• Daily practices to feel more energized and calm
• Differentiating your emotions from others to reconnect with your intuition
• Finding your authentic self through embodied presence
Lynn is a highly sensitive, empathic and intuitive individual working as a Reiki Master in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She assists others on their own unique path of self-discovery and self-care through in-person and distance Reiki sessions. Lynn believes self-care is an essential form of self-love and self-compassion and she helps individuals reconnect with their authentic selves through energy healing, mindfulness, and creative self-expression.
Keep in touch with Lynn:
• Website: https://www.fullcircleoflove.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fullcircleoflove
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fullcircleoflove
Resources Mentioned:
• Distance Reiki Sessions: https://www.fullcircleoflove.com/copy-of-distance-reiki
• Slow Stitching: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6umMO38eWA2ABqbRE6dgqYLKUrL7AhG9
• Yess Yoga Studio: https://www.yessyogastudio.com
Thanks for listening!
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This episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for treatment with a mental health or medical professional. Some links are affiliate links. You are under no obligation to purchase any book, product or service. I am not responsible for the quality or satisfaction of any purchase.
Episode Transcript
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 0:00
You've taken on a lot of other people's stories so you don't even know who you are anymore, because these are other people's stories and we just have to move this out of the way so that you can begin to live in your own authentic self and be able to live your purpose, rather than living out of whatever energy's on top of your authentic energy.
April Snow: 0:27
Welcome to Sensitive Stories, the podcast for the people who live with hearts and eyes wide open. I'm your host, psychotherapist and author, april Snow. I invite you to join me as I deep dive into rich conversations with fellow highly sensitive people that will inspire you to live a more fulfilling life as an HSP without all the overwhelm. In this episode I talk with Lynn Salmon Easter about finding your authentic self through energy healing, the importance of deep rest to heal your nervous system, and daily practices to clear other people's emotions and energy away so you can tune into your own needs and intuition. Lynn is a highly sensitive, empathic and intuitive individual working as a Reiki master in Minneapolis, minnesota. She assists others on their own unique path of self-discovery and self-care through in-person and distance Reiki sessions. Lynn believes self-care is an essential form of self-love and self-compassion, and she helps individuals reconnect with their authentic selves through energy healing, mindfulness and creative expression.
April Snow: 1:34
For more HSP resources and to see behind-the-scenes video from the podcast, join me on Instagram, tiktok or YouTube at Sensitive Strengths or sign up for my email list. Links are in the show notes and at sensitivestoriescom. And just a reminder that this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for treatment with a mental health or medical professional. Let's dive in. Well, lynn, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today.
April Snow: 2:26
Thank you Excited to be here. Yes, so good to connect, and so I want to start off by asking your HSP discovery story how or when you've realized that you're highly sensitive.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 2:37
Yeah, I really, really enjoy this question that you ask all of your guests that come on the podcast. It's so fascinating to hear the different ways that individuals discovered when they were HSVs. And for many people there's other people on your podcast, but for many people similar to myself, I came to this very late in my life. I was about 45. I'm 52 now and I worked in advertising for about 25 years. So in college and after I left college and when I hit 40, I knew I really needed to discover and find a way out of the industry. I mean, I had felt it coming before then, but the work was really beginning to become unsustainable for me and it was taking more self care, more resources, more finances. I was a freelancer, so I was always working jobs, you know, and I could take time off, but I would work a job and then it would just take me that much more time to recover from the job and I thought, you know, this is not sustainable to do anymore, and so I really felt like I needed to find a way at least out of the industry by the time I was 50. And I found my way out around 45. And so, you know, the thing is is that Reiki began to come into my life when my dad started declining. Around that age I was about 40. He started declining with Lewy body and Parkinson's and it was his death that really brought Reiki to me and I took a class kind of like.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 4:10
With my dad's death, like the subconscious bubbles started to come up in my life like books and I had had chronic illness, probably due to the fact that you know, even though I adored advertising and it was great for me in a lot of ways in my life, I think it was a big stressor on my body. So I had a lot of gut issues and chronic illness and I remember one of my practitioners had suggested to try Reiki and I never pursued that for self-care. And so when my dad started to decline, that subconscious bubble kind of floated up in my brain and I thought, oh, I'm going to go and do this. So I did a Reiki training, level one for my own benefit and self-care. And during those trainings you work on other individuals, you trade, you know practice and I could feel that my body was really happy.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 5:01
But people that I was working, I was like they're like your body is so happy and it was so happy and so then I just really started having this overwhelming sense that I was supposed to be doing something with this. And yes, I mean I didn't know that I was going to become a practitioner but and so really my father's death brought the Reiki to me and then I felt called into becoming a practitioner and my dad was always this individual who really encouraged people to become their authentic self and wanted them to really live in their authenticity and I felt like so really I do this work out of a way to live my dad's legacy and to really be able to spread the gifts of Reiki to the wider world, because I felt really called to do that and that has brought a lot of purpose and meaning to my life, which, you know, working with highly sensitive people is like one of the top things. Like I find working with highly sensitive individuals that if they don't have a purpose, even if it's on the side of their job, they have mental health issues, and so this has really helped me to live my highest purpose doing this work. So I started my private practice about six years ago and I live in Minneapolis and I joined a clinic called Wellness Minneapolis that was run by two wealthy humans and their mission is to help people run wellness businesses.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 6:22
And I had been a freelancer my entire life as an advertiser, but not in wellness, and so they really came alongside me and taught me how to kind of have a good session, what that looks like, how to give good care in a consistent way, or what good care looks like and making sure that people feel really held in terms of how not the session, but how like start to finish, how it unfolds and how people can feel, you know, like giving aftercare, recommendations, these types of things. And so it was during that time that I became aware of what a highly sensitive person is through this clinic, through one of the owners hosting, about being highly sensitive and it was something I had heard about, but it's not something I ever went down the rabbit hole with.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 7:06
And so I did the Google thing and I found Elaine Aron's quiz and I took that, but it was really the quiz that Julie B Ellen had on her website and I took that and I answered all the questions yes and I actually like hesitated and answered the last question no, because I was like I don't even know what this means if I answer all the questions yes and answered the last question no, because I was like I don't even know what this means if I answer all the questions yes. And then I was like wow. So I then kind of instantly texted or emailed my mom and said I just took this quiz, because what happened was that just even taking the quiz made all these things come together for me from my childhood forward about why things had happened in my life a certain way, why I had maybe quote unquote failed in certain ways that I felt like hadn't worked out. And then, of course, I just started this kind of deep dive into the traits of what it means to be highly sensitive.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 8:00
And then I guess I had the good fortune, really in some way, to be asked by one of my clients in the first year and a half that I was doing Reiki to come alongside her and support her with a group. And I was like who am I to do this? But I decided to do it, to go to take my own deep dive into research, because I love research and it's honestly the best thing I've done. I'm still running support series groups once a month over a six-month period for groups of cohorts of people and it's been really transformative for me and for other individuals. From them to learn that, just like you're supporting people, it really helps them to let go of shame and guilt and to come into their power and to understand that they have tools and that they actually have some say in how their life can feel. It's a game changer. I feel like.
April Snow: 8:48
It really is a game changer, to have that perspective and those resources.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 8:52
Yeah, yeah, so that's my story.
April Snow: 8:56
I love it that one piece led to the other piece to the other piece. You're just following that memory, or that sense of, oh, energy worker, reiki is something that could support me, and then it led you to realizing that you're highly sensitive and that led to deeper insights. I've heard that from other folks where when they take the self-test, you start putting the puzzle pieces together, like, oh, this is connected to my sensitivity, and so is this, and oh, now I'm seeing everything through a new lens. It's a very transformative process.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 9:31
It sure is, yeah, and I will say I have to go back and look. I haven't been looking at Julie B Allen's site most recently, but she's really supporting women now in that late stage of coming into autism and that quiz has shifted a bit and it doesn't align as much for me, but I certainly tell my clients about it. I think she's doing amazing work and really helping women who are coming into that knowledge in their late stages of their life.
April Snow: 9:58
So yay for that resource, which is so exciting because there's not a lot of resources available. There are not, there's not. We need so much more. I mean, I'm glad we're having these types of conversations right, just to spread that information and the awareness, because I've had people come in it's a new frontier. It's a new frontier right. But even people in their 60s and 70s reach out and say I just discovered this about myself and I really wish I had known sooner. Everything would have been different.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 10:25
You know how I thought about myself, how I live my life, so I know, yeah, I just had two 60 year olds in my highly sensitive group. That went through and we just ended in March and I reassured both of them. I'm like there's individuals your age in this group, because it's not always the case. Because they were both kind of hesitant and I was like no, no, it's okay, I'm like the more you know about yourself, the better. Never too late, never too late.
April Snow: 10:52
That's right? Yeah, for sure. Yes, and so it sounds like you know Reiki that coming into your life has been. I mean, it's really shifted your whole life. It sounds like Absolutely yes. It's pretty incredible, and it sounds like it's continues to be a great resource for you personally, but also you're spreading it to others in community spaces. I'm curious how are you finding that sense of balance and calm as an HSP? In addition to Reiki, I'd love to hear more about what helps you.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 11:20
One thing that I have been doing recently since the pandemic, is creating art, and I discovered I'm going to show some art, but I discovered slow stitching during the pandemic from my fellow artist, emma Freeman over at Deep Rooted Healing, and I can hold up another piece too that I'll go to the thrift store Like this is like an Italian linen shirt that's kind of chartreuse green, and then I have a circle stitched on it, a gray circle, and it's on a stick.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 11:49
So, in answer to your question, like, definitely taking walks with my furry family member is one way that I calm, and taking long walks, or in my neighborhood, and then I'll find these sticks, and so the slow stitching is really just like letting go of perfection. It's it's using straight stitch. I mean, this is called seed stitch, so it's a sporadic use of straight stitches, but it's really about letting go of perfection. And, for those of you who are listening, this is multiple layers of fabric draped over a stick and then I stitch it together and it has some frayed edges. And honestly, april I started this and Emma, who was teaching me, like had all these things that were frayed. I mean, I worked in advertising and everything had to be tight and perfect, so this was really an unwinding for myself of becoming okay with having these frayed edges and letting go. And actually, emma talked about the back. You have to look at the back.
April Snow: 12:46
She's like I was curious yes, that's where it is.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 12:49
I was curious about the back. Yeah, she's like I want to show the back. She thinks it's really important and you can see all the threads and everything yeah, because it's the story of the story, the story of the stitches and the journey of the stitches right so that's beautiful.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 13:05
So you know, another way that I calm and comfort is to come into connection with other like-minded individuals or within community that are highly sensitive. So I mean I'm showing my artwork at a coffee shop and then also at the local library, because I'm also teaching individuals or wanting to teach classes about this and letting people know that they can use art as a way to. Basically, I do the stitching because it helps me metabolize emotions that I don't know, that I have words for right. I can't find words for them always, but somehow the stitching helps me to get that up and out. So that's why I stitch and when I've taught classes, people have said the same, as long as they're.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 13:51
You know, I'm teaching to unwind and not to feel like. It's not about the producing, it's about the creating, and there's no specific way that creation has to come to be. It doesn't have to be anything specific. It's really about what you were naming previously of like really following that niggle or that intuition of like where's the next stitch or what's the next stitch like right. So it's teaching us to be present. It's also teaching us to listen to what's coming to us, because I feel like it's for sure as highly sensitive individuals and just as humans in general, that staying present and listening deeply is very healing, because we're often taken out of our bodies, especially as highly sensitive individuals, because we feel so deeply, we spend so much time out of our bodies.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 14:38
I spent decades out of my body. That's the reality, you know. So you know it's a way to become embodied, and so one of those communities that I have become in collaboration with is the studio where I have my private practice, which is it's a community that's really intentional People are embodied and it's a supportive community that's really just wanting to commit to being intentional and embodied in their life. And that has really helped me in my own practice but also in my own life. But also in my own life, and I've now had this beautiful unfolding of seeing clients and then I'll go take like a yin or restorative yoga class and then come back and see clients, and so it's been this really beautiful experience of like whoa, this is what work can be. It can be like rest and work and work and rest, and I didn't really have that opportunity before, but it's been a lovely thing to experience experience in my body, to be able to do that.
April Snow: 15:48
So it's just finding that balance and be able to meet your needs as they come up, not needing to push, push, push. You mentioned the word embodied a few times and, for folks who maybe don't understand what that means, I wonder if you could just give us a little sense. What does it mean to be embodied?
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 16:05
Oh gosh, what does it mean to be embodied? Okay, I should be able to answer that right off the top. I think it just means you know, feeling, sensing and being in our bodies, like we've sometimes been told to. I know sometimes when I go to, yes, and it's trauma informed, and so this instructor will be asking us to look around the room and find things that we see, things that we smell, things that we taste, maybe touching something, feeling something. So it's really being present in the body and knowing that we're present in the body and not just in our head. Right, maybe you can refine that in terms of I know for myself, when I was not embodied, I think for myself that was a lot of why I didn't know how to feel, because I have definitely learned as an energy worker that if you're not embodied, if you're not in your body, then there's no way you can tell what's yours and what's somebody else's. You need to be in your present, in your body, to be able to have discernment.
April Snow: 17:07
It's so true because if you don't know what you're feeling, how will you know if this is yours or someone else's? And then losing access not just to feeling and sensation, but also intuition and those other internal forces that guide us as sensitive people. Instead, we're looking outside of ourselves and getting misled. That can get a little dangerous.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 17:29
Oh, yes, of course it can Well. Yeah, I of course it can well. Yeah, I mean, it can be life-threatening for some people, because people you know I mean will end up abusing drugs and alcohol and all these things because they just really can't find their way back to present moment and being in the body, and so yeah, or eating disorders harmful things right a lot of self-sabotaging A lot of self-sabotaging?
April Snow: 17:51
Yeah, a lot of self-sabotaging and also just missing the body's cues. I think one of my favorite things about being sensitive is that I notice when my body needs something long before it's yelling at me and it's like, oh, there's a little something, let me tend to that. And it's such a gift to be able to know what I need and when I need it. Yeah, yeah, it seems like a lot of what you're talking about is very tactile. It's being embodied, you know, using your hands, just really coming in to the present moment, such a healing practice, especially if you've been maybe disconnected from yourself, just to come back in and slow down and just be in the moment.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 18:35
Yeah, I think. One other thing that I can say just for listeners, because this is something you can do at home if you have a bathtub, or you can use a little small tub with your feet. But I've definitely learned as a practitioner, being an energy worker. Taking Epsom salt baths is so soothing to the nervous system, to our adrenals, and what I really see is that that really helps when I see clients to, it helps them to continue. So, like if we go out in the world and we take on the energetic yuck, taking an Epsom salt bath is one way to really help to move that energy off of us or through us in a way that we can do at home at a low cost.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 19:14
So, as HSPs, we're often sensitive to chemicals and things. So I just would say Epsom salts are a form of magnesium, so it's something that's relaxing to the body and it can be done before bed. It can be 20 minutes or longer, but I think just make sure you're buying Epsom salts that don't have chemicalized fragrance in them, because it can be irritating to the skin. But other than that, it's a pretty easy and simple process. So you know, like one to two cups in the bath is great, yeah.
April Snow: 19:43
Yeah, it's one of my favorite ways to just to self-care after a client day. Just get into the salt bath, just let it all go, and it is so calming. I sleep so well after an Epsom salt bath.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 19:58
Yes, one of my favorites.
April Snow: 19:59
It's a good reminder that something as simple as that, you know going to the drugstore buying just a basic bag of nothing fancy, and that can be just a really powerful form of self-care.
April Snow: 20:12
that you can do at home. Yeah, it's very affordable. Yeah, exactly, I love that. So let's say, for folks who maybe aren't familiar, we've talked about Reiki and how important that is for you personally and in your work, but there are probably some folks listening that don't know what that is. They've never, maybe, been to a Reiki session. Could you describe a little bit more about what that looks like or what's happening in a session? Sure, sure.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 20:36
So what's happening in a session is that? Well, I think the first thing is to let you know that every practitioner is different, and I basically see myself I've really, you know, really developed the style of the way I work in the same way. I came into the Reiki, so I've really been guided in my work and I was trained, but I've also just allowed myself to be guided, and so I see myself kind of working on four different levels with the Reiki during a session for an individual, and so I well let me say this first, because I think this is an important thing for anyone who has not maybe met Reiki or energy work I want to describe the fact that energy work is an umbrella and that Reiki is a form of energy work. Healing touches a form of energy work. Even acupuncture has some aspects of energy work, and so energy work is the bigger umbrella, and then Reiki is the form of energy work that's being done, because I can see that being very confusing. I didn't know about these things until I became a practitioner myself, and so I'm kind of using Reiki and energy work interchangeably, because Reiki is a form of energy work, but Reiki is a type of energy work that originates in Japan and there's other types of Reiki even, and then healing touches, and I'm not certified in that, but you can be certified through accredited programs and then you can work within the hospitals with that type of energy healing. So I mean, I call myself as Reiki practitioner because that's what I was trained in.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 22:08
So, at the most human level, what I really see Reiki coming alongside individuals with is deep restorative rest, which many of us need. On the second level, I see individuals that the energy work comes alongside them on a physical level, a physical body level. So I'm calming the individual's nervous system, I am helping alleviate any physical pain that they've named by helping to balance their physical and energetic system. The third way, or the third level that I'm seeing, that I can work with an individual and this is all kind of happening within one session normally is the energetic level. So I'm opening the chakras or the energy centers which I normally see at every joint, and then there's also that chakra center, those seven chakras right through the center of the body.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 23:05
In opening these chakra centers and making sure that they're not blocked, then we begin to come into more balance and we can feel more calm and we can feel more centered and, as I've worked, I just see energy coming off in layers and I'm a conduit, so I'm allowing, the minute I touch a client, energy is allowed to move through me.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 23:27
So if somebody is, I can tell how much work people are doing on themselves and how they care for me. So if somebody is, I can tell how much work people are doing on themselves and how they care for themselves, cause if I touch them and a ton of things start flying off, I know they've been doing their work Right and so that's going through me, and then I just send it out my feet into the earth and so you know the bodies or the soul is not going to really take things off that the individual can't handle, right. So it's a very gentle form. But I do see that that energy comes off in layers and so then sometimes, even within the session, a layer will come off and then something else is revealed, right.
April Snow: 24:00
Right. Something underneath, yes, revealed.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 24:04
So the fourth level I would say is more of a soul or a spiritual level, and that's kind of where I'm basically being an energy coach or you know, I am working with the soul and it's a time where I can I mean, I've been given the gift of channeling through my dad's death as well, and mediumship, and so sometimes the body is very direct, or the soul is very direct or the universe is very direct, or the soul is very direct or the universe is very direct about something that this individual can do to help move them in their life in a way like away from harm. Or I'll ask people what their intention is in the beginning. We have a conversation so people can name things that they want to bring in or let go of. And I do find often, even if people tell me stories about what they're trying to let go of something, it brings it directly to the surface energetically and then we can move it out and let it go and that can be really helpful for individuals, even if it's old stuff. And so that sharing, that intuitive sharing that I hear I will share that at the end of the session, and so I now kind of just knew this year I have two different sessions. I have more of a channeled session, that is more of a conversational session, and the session I'm speaking about now is more of a silent session. I really create a sanctuary of silence and allow deep rest and then we have that conversation at the end and I'm sharing what's coming through. One other thing, just because you know you work as a therapist that this didn't come to me until maybe three years into my practice, but it's been really fascinating to see individuals Many of my clients do have therapists and they've done a lot of work in therapy and sometimes clients will be on the table and I'll ask because sometimes the energy won't move and I just have to ask a question to get it to shift, and I'll say, well, I'm interested in this coming up, and sometimes clients will say, well, I thought I was done with that, and so what I have seen is that there are things in people's energetic fabrics, tapestry field that has not been cleared, but they've talked through it and they think it's done, and so then when I clear it, then they really come through the complete cycle and trauma or whatever it is is complete and they don't have that again.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 26:15
And if they do, I tell them that usually shows up in your dream life or other things. If you start obsessing about it, then that means that it's back and then maybe we have to take other layers off. Maybe that's triggered something else that we have to then go back to. You know deeper, and so every practitioner works differently. I personally sell packages and I encourage people to do that and I incentivize that because a I want to go deep with people and I see the best results when people so I have like sessions or a package of four and I see people make really astounding leaps and bounds, honestly, in four sessions that you can completely retrain somebody's nervous system, not for good right but for that period of their life, and then if some big thing happens, then you know the nervous system sometimes has to be coached back into that space.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 27:03
But the body much more recognizes it if it's been coached in that space.
April Snow: 27:08
Right, it's primed.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 27:09
Yeah, like I know what I'm doing, I know what we do here.
April Snow: 27:12
Right, yeah, so it's such important. I often encourage my clients to do some type of body work, somatic healing, in addition to our talk therapy, because I mean, I'm weaving in some somatic work, but not to the point that a practitioner. Could you know an energy healer or a somatic experiencing practitioner, some you know a craniosacral therapist, someone who can work physically with the energy in the nervous system, because we can only do so much through language. A lot of things are stored somatically, energetically, and so I'm not surprised to hear that you're seeing that in your work, where you're helping go and take that deeper layer and help move that through.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 27:56
I mean, I'm mostly working in the area, the space where there are not words right Exactly If. I am having to language it, I'm having to translate energy. Sometimes things come directly through, but many times it's wordless and then you know that's where I've gained more skill. Is like really translating energy, trusting and bringing that forth and then getting confirmation or affirmation from clients of like, yeah, you're spot on, and then that's given me more trust and more confidence to trust what's coming through.
April Snow: 28:24
So yeah just really listening and you talked about. You know it sounds like there's a lot of benefits, but just just to recap a few and I want to see if there's more, just to put words to it. So it sounds like energy work in general, potentially Reiki or healing touch or other work. It's really just allowing the body to rest and to unwind and heal physically, energetically and also spiritually, like you're healing at every level. Just wondering are there other benefits we haven't named to doing this type of work?
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 29:05
Let's see other benefits that we haven't named. I think one of the things that just in terms of specifically for HSPs, I think that what I see is so mostly the individuals that are called into my room are individuals that are pretty empathic, meaning we feel the collective, we're feeling other people's energy, and I would say HSPs are that people, and then some people are even more beyond that right and can really feel the collective energy. And so individuals that are highly sensitive and empathic. When they come into the room, the energy work, the Reiki work, really kind of meets them where they're at, where we live internally and where we kind of thrive out of.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 29:50
It's the place that many of us feel shut down about in the world and the Reiki witnesses that. And what I see is that people come and they feel so seen and witnessed and some people are brought to tears because they never felt like they've been seen in this way and they feel really safe and held and or people will say I've never talked about this with anyone. I'm like, well, you can talk about it here, because it's not something that we feel safe talking about in the wider world and why I love doing it is it really helps individuals to come into their authentic selves. So ideally, optimally, we're working through multiple sessions, because energy comes off in layers and there is the rare client who can come to me and I can get to their authentic energy in one session, but that client's doing a lot of things outside of my room.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 30:40
And so, you know, within the second or third session, oftentimes I can get individuals kind of in their authentic energy and even within the first session people feel lighter energy and even within the first session people feel lighter, they feel more clear.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 31:00
Because also, what we see is that what I see continually is that any kind of chronic stress really shuts that intuition down, that third eye. And so those are the clients that you know. People come to me. They don't feel clear, they feel lost, they'll feel apathetic, they can't make decisions anymore, they don't know who they are, they may have lost their luster for life and most of the time I just say oh, hey, friend, you're just, you're highly sensitive, like I am. You've taken on a lot of other people's stories and you're wearing those stories so you don't even know who you are anymore Because you think this is your story and it's not your story, these are other people's stories and we just have to move this out of the way so that you can begin to live in your own authentic self and be able to find your glimmer and your authentic light again, so that you can live your purpose rather than living out of whatever energy is on top of your authentic energy.
April Snow: 31:51
Right so that makes sense that when you're saying you help bring people back into their authentic self, it's just taking off all the things they've absorbed from other people from the world that aren't theirs like oh and see yourself again.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 32:07
Yeah, almost like taking off clothes, or like organza, like layers like this. You know, almost like taking off clothes or like layers like this, you know, like, and then it becomes revealed, you know, the authentic energy becomes revealed and then people can feel much more at ease and they can make decisions clearly again. They know who they are, they find their purpose, they're like oh yeah, this is what it feels like to be me. Cause they forget, we forget what it feels like to be me or ourselves, right, we?
April Snow: 32:33
do when we've been living a certain way for so long, whether it be living with that lackluster energy or a health issue it becomes normal, yeah, and we forget who we were or who we could be. We do forget, yeah, so this helps them find themselves again.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 32:52
Yeah, yeah, so it can be a pretty extraordinary transformation for individuals yes, I mean, I felt it myself.
April Snow: 32:58
You know, I work with a body worker and we do a mixture of energy, somatic, experiencing some craniosacral, and when I'm done with a session I feel like a kid. I'm so joyful and free and I'm like where am I? But there's that authenticity there that I'm not bogged down anymore. It's phenomenal, and I do. When you said letting the layers come off, like I literally will feel energies flowing out of my head like back to the earth, yeah, it just pours off.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 33:30
I think it's one thing that I always tell clients when they come. If it's been the first time that I say you know this work like any type of work you're going to maybe see things, hear things like I call it seeing things across your mind screen. I said, as I'm bringing things off, taking things off, you may be reliving this and I'm like that's completely normal and emotions like this can bring a lot of emotions oh, oh yeah, and so it's like it's really we want it out because it's been shoved down.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 33:57
We do not want it to like go back down, right, we want to bring it up and out. So it has. Oftentimes clients are like reliving things on the table.
April Snow: 34:04
Yeah, I definitely get a lot of visuals and emotions coming, and sometimes just spontaneously.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 34:10
That's right.
April Snow: 34:10
It's the last session. I just like laughed out loud or some sound just came out and I was like.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 34:14
I don't know what that was but I'm letting it go, just let it be. Yeah, it's really beautiful, yeah, it's a very organic process, but also in the body is so wise. Right, like I'm not manipulating her. I mean, I can be encouraging, but the body's just doing what it's doing, like there's a rhyme and a rhythm and a wisdom to it. That's just so amazing to witness and to, to see and to support.
April Snow: 34:38
Yeah, and we often can't get there on our own.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 34:41
No, I can't get there on my own either.
April Snow: 34:43
I have to go see people.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 34:45
Yeah, it's really important to be doing it together.
April Snow: 34:48
I'm curious when the first time you experienced energy work is.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 34:57
I know you talked about being introduced to it around the time that your father was passing, but I'm just wondering if you could share more about that story. Yeah, I loved this question so much when I read this question because it's kind of so. The name of my business is full circle of love Because when my dad died I'm a creative person and I did the like what are they called? Like the picture boards for my dad's service. You know, I don't know if they have an official name, but I've been a long time stuffer of my emotions and I kind of knew it might make me sick.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 35:25
My dad's death might really like give me a normal disease if I didn't work through it. And so I decided for a year to send I have a small family so I would make a photo card and send it once a month as a way to touch the grief. And I did that for like about a year and one of the takeaways from that was just really learning that my dad kind of taught me to come back to love, or taught our family to come back to love, and that can be a really profound foundation, even when there's been hard things, challenges, right, and so I guess I'm saying that. So my brother helped me kind of think of a name because, you know, I don't know if you've ever tried to get a domain, but things like start evaporating and things were evaporating so.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 36:03
I'm like whoa. He's like how about full circle of love? So that's the name of my company, llc. But why I'm saying that is because, like, this really is full circle, right.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 36:13
So the first time I actually had energy work done was on my wedding day, because I was 28 and I am married the oldest grandchild in a family of 10 grandchildren and my husband has a huge family and I wanted a smaller wedding and we ended up with a bigger wedding and basically what happened is I just did not know anything about being highly sensitive. I did not know anything about the trait and I didn't set myself up properly for success because I didn't know what I needed and we had a small. Well, we had a wedding. It wasn't huge, but it was like I think it was about a hundred people in the yard and we wanted to have a sunset wedding, which worked out beautifully, honestly. But what that meant is that we ended up scheduling dinner before the service and I am really blood sugar sensitive and I was so anxious that I couldn't eat. I finally got some fruit down, but basically this is I call it short circuiting, but basically my body like short circuited on me and I couldn't like stand up anymore and then people are coaching me Well, maybe you're going to have to sit in a chair and I was like I don't want to sit in a chair and my husband's aunt came over to me. I was literally like in a lazy boy in the living room, just like trying to figure out what to do. The service was about ready to start in the yard and she just came over and laid her hands on me and my body literally went like wow, and it was just like within about five to 10 minutes I came congruent and I just stood up and I said I want to get this over with. I walked out of the door, completed the service and I was just like I want to be done with this.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 37:59
Like you know, I just was overwhelmed by how much love there was and just having so many people in the space. It was like I'm a Leo. I'm supposed to be wanting to be on the stage. I did not want to be on the stage and so I was talking to the aunt later and I just said what did you do? She goes oh, I was doing healing touch on you and I was like whoa and I literally really didn't have energy work again until this time when my dad started dying. That's not something that I just didn't think about it.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 38:29
I was 28. I was living in New York City and then we moved and I mean all these things Right, you know, and I just I hadn't really. But when Reiki came to my life again, I was like whoa, this is a really big piece of the puzzle. That's been missing is knowing that I'm not and having awareness about my energy body and taking care of my energy body, because I recognized at that time what a huge part of my life that was and that that really was a big part of why I was having so many health issues is because I wasn't listening to that. That was the part of me, like you're saying that the subtle cues of like, hey, you're overriding all the systems, right, and so then this like short circuiting happened, kind of. So it was really an amazing gift, honestly, that was given to me. Little did I know that I was going to come back around and become a practitioner. I would have never guessed that in a million years.
April Snow: 39:23
But it's quite a pivot from what you're doing in marketing. Oh, yes, for sure. But I mean, I really love that you have this history with it and at this very important moment and you talked about, you know, being surrounded by love I think it's an important reminder that it doesn't matter what the energy is. It can be positive and it can still really overwhelm us as HSPs especially if you're also empathic. Oh, absolutely.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 39:49
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely the good and the challenging can feel so similar, right In terms of overwhelm, so similar.
April Snow: 39:58
Exactly, yeah, yeah, so we've talked a little bit about you know what energy work can support you with, but I do want to check in and see if you have any thoughts on other times where you should not do energy work. Oh yeah, contraindicated.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 40:09
So I can't think of a lot of reasons that energy work would be contraindicated, but one that I've seen personally as a practitioner, because every practitioner is different, right. So what I've witnessed is that I've had some lovely humans come to me that I personally have really wanted to help, and it hasn't been helpful for them. And those individuals are the individuals who maybe have chronic fatigue or something, where there's a lot of illness that's going on in multiple systems and energy work is potentially, or supposedly, very gentle. But what I found is that sometimes these individuals get flooded and then it feels okay at the time when we're working, and then they go home and they have this huge like kind of collapse or like energy crisis and I feel really bad about it.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 40:58
So I think that energy work could be okay for some of these individuals, but at least the way I work, you know, I don't know the energy comes through potently or something. I don't always have the controls for that. That's been my experience. And so if somebody comes to me with a lot of not layered trauma, but just like if it's showing up in so many systems, like somebody who has POTS or somebody who has chronic fatigue, and it's hitting all the systems. It's like it's too much for their system. They have to get a little bit stronger, I think, before we can. I think it's just literally running too much energy through them. Yeah, that is just like the system kind of goes haywire and goes like I don't know what to do with this, right, so it ends up not being helpful. It ends up being more of an irritant for them.
April Snow: 41:39
Honestly Makes sense and you don't want to overwhelm the system. Sometimes you can you can flood it and it's not helpful. Yeah, yeah. So, a little sense. Yeah, as we start to wrap up here, I'm wondering if there is a message you could share with HSP listeners who are feeling stuck or imbalanced or maybe feeling that saturated feeling we've alluded to.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 42:01
what would that message be yeah.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 42:04
I'm really encouraging people to continue to find ways to be in their body, to be embodied right, to find ways to have the sensory fences alive in our body and being aware of them. As we talked about, we can only feel our emotions or work through our emotions when we're in our body, and we need to be in our body to own and to be in our authentic energy, and so I would really encourage people to be finding ways and and really the way the world is working these days there are so many options now like this is really coming online in full force, which is so beautiful to see, and there's so much integration and so many things that are kind of cross pollinating in a way that is really beautiful to see, and so I'm really encouraging individuals to find spaces where they can find support about gently finding ways to be in their body and to find rest, because the truth is that, as highly sensitive individuals, we are the guides, we're the seers in this world.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 43:01
We are paving the way for a better future, and so my deepest wish and hope which is why I'm passionate about the work I do is to have people be in their authenticity. I want people who are highly sensitive to be in their bodies and sharing their gifts and in their authentic energy, because that is how they shine the brightest, and it's the only way they can share their own unique gifts is if they're in their body and turned on, and so I'm just really encouraging people to continue to commit to shining brightly, and it doesn't have to be pushed or forced. It can be a very gentle unfolding, but a commitment to yourself is just simply a commitment to yourself.
April Snow: 43:39
I love that.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 43:40
And to your authenticity.
April Snow: 43:42
Thank you. Yes, I love that so much Because, it's true, we are the seers and the feelers, the emotional leaders, and it's really important that we take care of ourselves and we set down what other people are feeling or what they've told us we should be feeling and just say let's come back to self.
April Snow: 43:59
Let's come back to that authenticity and we have so much to give from that place, agreed Of embodiment and presence. Yeah Well, lynn, thank you so much for everything you shared today. I love this conversation. I'll make sure I share all the resources that you offer in the show notes for folks, and you do offer distance Reiki and intuitive reading session, so I'm wondering if you could share with folks a little bit more about that, if they're interested. Yeah, yeah.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 44:25
So the distance session honestly came to me kind of during the pandemic, because I really didn't want to be cut off from clients and I literally kind of just asked the universe to come alongside me and like, hey, how do I do this? So I went back to my neighbors who helped me develop my in person session and practice with them and kind of a style came through and so that's what I do to this day and so that distance session is kind of a distance Reiki and intuitive reading, because it allows the healing to happen from anywhere in the world. And it sounds hard to believe that it can happen. But really I'm just, you know, energy's everywhere and so I'm just tuning in and so I guide people through a meditation and we align our energies and that's kind of like an energetic body scan and that's kind of like an energetic body scan. And then as we go through the session, I'm asking the body to show me affirmations and I use those kind of like my hands in the Reiki room and using those affirmations to come back to. And people still go into this space of kind of like wake or sleep like they would in person, and sometimes people let go of even more things at home because they're in the safety of their own home and the body feels very safe and so even more can leave.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 45:34
But I would say these kind of intuitive reading sessions or distance sessions really allow individuals to also partake in any kind of aha or insight moments, because it's more of a conversational style or, you know, somebody can choose not to be conversing with me, but we, we can be having a dialogue and so that universal guidance or if individuals are wanting to connect with a loved one who's you know past, that is something that we can bring in, because I do have some mediumship capabilities and so there's really a connection or a comfort of a container that allows loved ones to come through, or spirit guides and opens this opportunity for universal messages to come through in these sessions, along with the healing and the balance and harmony and clearing of energy and clarity. So there's all these things that are happening at one time, and so I do the sessions in the US via via phone usually, because I'm more of an auditory person. I'll use Zoom and use the audio if somebody's out of the country or it's somewhere that you know they can't use their phone.
April Snow: 46:39
So yeah, yeah, it sounds like such a I mean a rich resource where so much could happen, like you're saying, in the comfort of home. I know with my clients I also work by distance, so they like being at home and they feel comfortable and things can just unfold, which is really beautiful. And you're right, you might not expect it, but a lot is possible.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 47:01
Yeah.
April Snow: 47:02
Yeah, sounds like a beautiful resource. Well, lynn, thank you again so much for being here today. Thank you, this is amazing.
Lynn Salmon-Easter: 47:08
Thank you. Thank you so much, April.
April Snow: 47:18
Thank you for joining me and Lynn for today's conversation. I hope you'll remember that, no matter how overwhelmed or tired you feel, your full, authentic self is waiting for you just under the surface. All you need is a little support, rest and clearing away. To book a distance Reiki and intuitive reading session with Lynn, head to her website, fullcircleoflovecom. Links are also in the show notes. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Sensitive Stories podcast so you don't miss our upcoming conversations. Reviews and ratings are also helpful and appreciated For behind-the-scenes content and more HSP resources. You can sign up for my email list or follow Sensitive Strengths on Instagram, tiktok and YouTube. Check out the show notes or sensitivestoriescom for all the resources from today's episode. Thanks for listening.
