Welcome to Highly Sensitive Money. In this episode, Diana Yañez sits down with the remarkable Kellita Maloof, a showgirl shaman, to delve deep into the experiences of highly sensitive individuals and their relationship with money. Kellita shares her journey, insights, and the incredible work she does to help others shine while maintaining their sensitivity.
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The Journey of a Showgirl Shaman
The conversation kicks off with Kellita sharing how her journey began, navigating through different roles and finally embracing her identity as a performing and teaching artist. She emphasizes her focus on helping highly sensitive women who often hold space for others but seek a safe place to shine and feel supported.
Balancing Artistic Passion and Entrepreneurship
Diana and Kellita reflect on the balance between being an artist and an entrepreneur. Kellita explains the spectrum where, on one end, entrepreneurs identify a need and fulfill it, while on the other, artists feel compelled to share their inner fire with the world. She reveals how she aimed to survive as a sensitive person and how everything she teaches is something that has healed her first. This resonates with highly sensitive people who might struggle with balancing their passionate pursuits with the financial demands of life.
Identifying and Embracing High Sensitivity
Diana: When did you start to identify that you were highly sensitive?
Kellita recalls that shortly after moving to San Francisco in the mid-90s, she discovered Elaine Aron’s book, “The Highly Sensitive Person,” which helped her make sense of her experiences.
She also credits Annie Axford’s work for deeply articulating high sensitivity and its nuances, helping her understand herself better.
Kellita’s experiences highlight the importance of recognizing and embracing high sensitivity, even if societal norms make it challenging. Her reflections resonate with many who have felt overwhelmed by their sensitivities but have learned to see them as strengths.
Financial Background and Impact
Diana shifts the conversation toward financial backgrounds and their impacts. Kellita recounts her upbringing in Mendocino, California, a small village where her family’s middle-class status was relatively affluent compared to others. However, moving to San Diego exposed her to a different context, making her feel poorer despite similar economic standings.
Kellita’s narrative underscores how financial status is relative and context-dependent. For highly sensitive individuals, understanding this can be crucial in managing the societal pressures related to wealth and success.
Embodying Sensitivity Through Dance
Kellita exemplifies how integrating sensitivity into her work has led to profound personal and communal healing. Diana and Kellita discuss the significance of staying embodied in one’s work and the challenges highly sensitive individuals face in doing so. Kellita shares a simple yet powerful practice – the shimmy – to help listeners stay connected with their bodies.
Kellita: Wherever you are listening to this, if you just shimmy your bottom, literally bring a vibration into your bottom. This movement, wherever you send it, is like movement medicine.
Navigating Money Conversations
The conversation steers towards the complexities of discussing and managing money, especially for highly sensitive entrepreneurs. Diana and Kellita talk about the negative connotations attached to terms like “brand” and “debt,” and how society’s late-stage capitalism impacts our financial decisions. Kellita stresses the importance of embodying financial decisions and being in a compassionate relationship with money.
Money Management and Mentorship
Diana shares her practice of setting a timer for 5 minutes to handle financial tasks, emphasizing the importance of understanding one’s tolerance levels. Kellita echoes the need for mindful practices and reflects on the influence of past experiences on financial behaviors.
Kellita openly discusses the challenges of pricing her services and the internal tug-of-war between charging appropriately and wanting to serve everyone. Diana introduces the concept of money mentors, individuals who help shape our relationship with money, highlighting the absence of them in Kellita’s journey but emphasizing the learnings from less ideal examples.
Conclusion: Embracing Sensitivity and Financial Wisdom
The conversation with Kellita Maloof is a profound exploration of the intersection between high sensitivity and financial management. It sheds light on how embracing our sensitivities can lead to authentic and ethical ways of navigating the world of money. Both Diana and Kellita exemplify how blending practical strategies with sensitivity and compassion can lead to a more fulfilling and sustainable life.
Kellita: Oh, I just want to say thank you. This has been a deep dive into money. One thing about money is it’s rarely talked about publicly. So thank you for creating the safe space and for initiating these conversations.
As we wrap up, Diana reiterates her mission to ease suffering around money and the importance of having these intimate, often taboo conversations. For highly sensitive individuals, the message is clear: it’s possible to honor our sensitivities while being financially wise and stable.
Resources:
Kellita’s website Showgirl Awakening
Kellita’s movement tutorials
Kellita’s book How to Create a Burslesque Solo From the Inside Out
Eileen Aaron’s book “The Highly Sensitive Person”
Ane Axford’s work on high sensitivity
Tad Hargrave of Marketing for Hippies
The Nap Ministry
allthecolors.net for the Money Archetypes quiz