Highly Sensitive Person
I am one. So are many of you. According to Jane Ganal, ‘Heightened Sensitivity: Help For The Overstimulated’, (Spirituality & Health, July/August 2015), we make up about 20% of the population.
In her book, The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron PhD. describes the characteristics we all share.
- We feel things more deeply.
- We are emotionally reactive and brimming over with empathy for the plight of our fellow humans.
- We take longer and we struggle to make decisions.
- We are detail oriented to the extreme; we notice subtleties, and tend toward perfectionism.
- We are more prone to depression and anxiety.
- We are not all introverts.
- We are sensitive to violence, loudness, and criticism.
- We are better mannered than most.
We often feel out of step with our families, our friends, our culture and our times. But a wonderful gift that comes with the ‘curse’ is that we are also very creative.
Keys to learning how to manage being an HSP:
- Get your creativity in full gear.
- Turn off the news. Don’t watch movies, dramas, etc. that evoke your empathic nature.
- Learn how not to absorb and hang onto the negative energies of others, be it anger, depression or excessive drama.
- Connect with your fellow HSP’s.
- Find and seize alone time! It is critical for HSP’s to find activities, space and quiet that help them to retreat, re-charge, and feed their souls. We cannot give to ourselves or others from an empty tank (heart).
Learn to control the inner critic that tells you that you are too sensitive, too inadequate, and not perfect. Centering into the truth of who you are is a path to inner peace.