Ask the Author | Top 10 Traits of Highly Resilient People
Cynthia J. Harrison’s story is going to really shake some things up! Not only is she an energy medicine practitioner working with the bio field, but she has been tuned into people and our trapped energy since she was very young.
Cynthia’s story in our book, The Top 10 Traits of Highly Resilient People, is deeply personal. The trauma that Cynthia’s daughter endured in this chapter of their lives was deep, and the way that Cynthia tuned into her daughter’s needs is really something special.
But we don’t give it all away here! You can read the whole journey in Cynthia’s chapter of the book – but in today’s interview Cynthia takes us back to becoming a very young mother and her inner voice or guidance leading her decision to keep her daughter against all odds.
Dr. Andrea – So you have had a really varied background. But it sounds to me that a common thread for you was needing to tune into your intuition and trust yourself. Is that true?
Cynthia – Yes, but in a strange way I actually tuned out, and part of my story is about that. Being so sensitive and finding my inner guidance system so strong was actually overwhelming with some much happening in my life – I found myself numbing out.
Dr. Andrea – Was it because you could hear and see things? Or was it what you were feeling and picking up?
Cynthia – When I was younger it was more kinesthetic. You know, there are four main sensory stress styles. My first one is kinesthetic, my second one is tonal. So that’s a little bit different to the learning styles most people might know, because these are about the energetics rather than teaching.
So a kinesthetic has a felt sense. For example if you have a headache and I’m sitting near you, then I’ll feel your headache. Some people might call that being an ‘empath’, but you know, empaths aren’t necessarily kinesthetic.
So this is how I work today and understand the world we’re in, and these to help other highly sensitive and empathic people. And also listening to that still, small voice we have within. So there are many layers. But to start with, as a young one, I had no idea what all of this was.
I found it all so overwhelming to my body that I would self-medicate. Which I think a lot of adults do that because they don’t want to feel. So going on to be a therapist and a social worker, understanding that at another level how people coming out of addictions and off medication are starting to feel.
They are really struggling with their felt sense, their physicality, and there’s a whole other path or way of knowing about that. So understanding these multiple levels of how we are in the world, mind, body and spirit, and at all of those levels.
Dr. Andrea – What’s interesting is that you share in the book your experience of having your daughter, and all the things surrounding the pregnancy. That was a pretty intense trauma for such a young woman, and yet you say that you really feel that trauma is a portal for our evolution. But before we get onto that – tell us what happened when you were pregnant with your daughter.
Cynthia – So it’s a long story, of course!
But ultimately, when I reflected back on it, at the time it was really just survival and getting through, and not really having any choice or say in my life at all.
And you know, even though I chose to carry on with the pregnancy, that was the voice I listened to. Well it’s not so much a voice, but more a sense of inner knowing, but it’s really forceful. There was no hesitation that I wouldn’t go forward.
Dr. Andrea – Remind me, how old were you at that point?
Cynthia – I was 15.
Dr. Andrea – So that’s incredible. From being such a young girl, pregnant, and with your family telling you one thing… To have that inner knowing at that age that says, “No, I’m going to defy everyone and move forward.”
Cynthia – Well that was the thing – I had that little voice. And it was interesting because I knew that if I spoke to anybody else, adults so to speak, that there would be pressure to go another path. So me and some of my friends basically went through that journey together for about seven and a half months. And then the adults knew.
So it was time for me to take responsibility for this new life, and to take responsibility for my health and my life too. Because there was so much overwhelm in what I was feeling of the world, all the pain and suffering of everyone else.
I was in a coma when I was ten or eleven, but that’s a whole other story for another book. But when I came back ‘online’ so to speak, that’s when I really started to see the world and feel more. A lot of people have those experiences and I feel that this exacerbated what I feel.
Looking back, I didn’t so much see, feel, sense and know things, but because it was survival, I was focused on what I needed to do to get through each moment. But once the adults knew I was pregnant, they took charge and I was put in a home.
I’d hung onto until this point without them knowing because I knew at this point there was no way of them terminating.
But I got shipped off to the home, away from family and friends, school, everything. That was a whole other journey. So my story in the book is partly about the scrutiny I was under and the fight I had on my hands being a young mum.
Dr. Andrea – I know there is a lot more to your story there, of what you went through to keep your daughter and not lose her to the adoption system. But let’s save that for the book, and for now, take us to the second fight for your daughter’s life.
Cynthia – So it was about 26 years later, and one of those fights for life and the strength and courage for us to survive both of those situations and come out power-filled. We came out filled with love and really able to speak our truth and be who we are, rather than what society expects of us.
Without giving away too much from the book, it was another life threatening incident. But this time about injuries and going through each day not knowing what was coming next, be it something with her brain or her organs. So that was wee I had really come into learning about the voice, being directed, what my gifts to the world are and what my medicine is…
Watch Cynthia’s full interview here on YouTube, and of course, get a copy of The Top 10 Traits of Highly Resilient People here.