Our Summer 2021 issue is out, and we are very excited about it! One of the highlights of this issue is an exclusive interview with the amazing Anita Moorjani, who spoke about the value of empathy and sensitivity, in a world that has grown harsh. Read a sneak peek below!
Sensitivity is Strength
A conversation with Anita Moorjani
by Aisling Cronin
Interviewers: Paul Congdon and Jane Stephenson
Anita Moorjani is a world-renowned spiritual author, speaker and teacher. We were honoured to speak with her recently on the subjects of sensitivity, strength, and the courage it takes to fully be oneself.
Anita is well-known for her 2012 book ‘Dying to be Me’, which chronicled a near-death experience she went through six years earlier. ‘In 2006, after a four-year battle with cancer, I fell into a coma and was given hours to live,’ she explains. ‘As my doctors gathered to revive me, I was given the choice to return to my physical form or to continue into this new realm. I chose the former, and when I regained consciousness, my cancer began to heal. Since then, I’ve heeded the call to share this powerful story—and divine lesson—with the world: Love yourself fully. That’s what you’re here to do.”
This is a message she powerfully expresses in her new book, ‘Sensitive Is the New Strong’, which focuses on the harnessing and fostering of empathic gifts. Anita helps empaths — whether emerging or acknowledged — to navigate obstacles they may face and identify what makes them unique. She teaches them how to claim their true powers as empaths, with the ultimate aim of shifting the planet in a more harmonious direction.
According to Anita, this shift has never been more needed.
‘Ruthlessness, competitiveness, winning at all costs … these are considered strengths in our current society,’ she says. ‘People with these qualities are the ones who tend to rise to the top, precisely because these are the traits we have been led to value. This is why the world is in the state it’s in today. Traits like empathy, gentleness and compassion haven’t been valued. Sensitive people don’t get into power, because we think those qualities we have are weak. So we have to change the metrics of what it means to be strong if we want to see a different world. Love, empathy and sensitivity deserve to be seen as strengths.’
Anita is passionate about helping empaths to be secure and at peace with who they are. She understands the hurdles that sensitive people can face in a world that doesn’t always honour their needs.
‘Many empaths have a problem with being assertive,’ she comments, ‘as they worry that being assertive must mean being aggressive. One thing I often recommend to people who struggle with this is: imagine you have a spectrum, or sliding scale. On one end of the scale is aggressive behaviour, in the middle of the scale, you have healthy, assertive actions, and at the other end of the scale, you have passiveness. Empaths who are on the passive end of that scale allow people to walk all over them, and this is how they lose their energy.’
On the difference between assertiveness and aggression, Anita adds, ‘when you are being assertive, you are just taking back control of your own life. You are identifying that ‘I am a soul, I have a purpose, and I need to keep my battery charged so that I can fulfil my purpose.’ Aggression involves wanting to control not just your own life, but somebody else’s life too. So when you simply want to take decisions about your own life, you are not being selfish for doing that. When you don’t want anyone to control you, nor do you want to control other people, that’s exactly where you need to be.’
You can read the full article in our Summer 2021 issue – click here to find your nearest stockist, or here to subscribe.
For more information on Anita’s new book, ‘Sensitive is the New Strong’, as well as her other books, teachings and videos, go to anitamoorjani.com
