The Highly Sensitive Person
If this title caught your eye, you may be one of the 15 to 20% of the population who experiences life with heightened awareness and gets overwhelmed easily. You may get into a car and insist that the music be turned down and the sunroof be closed back up. Perhaps perfumes, noises and strong voices are highly distracting and even disturbing. If this is you, you might have been told much of your life that you were too sensitive and that you need to chill out. Well you are not alone or weird but you are definitely in the minority. The good news is that many books and workbooks have been written to help you understand and navigate your chronically overstimulated self. Sometimes just reading Elaine Aaron’s, The HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSON can make you feel less alone. The bad news: you probably have a lot of shame about being so sensitive because you are different. Once you learn how to accept and appreciate your sensitivity, though, it can become your greatest gift. How? Sensitive people are notoriously creative, intuitive, insightful and introspective which, I think, makes them interesting and unique. I mean, really. Who would you rather call with a problem? A friend who means well but isn’t much help, or your friend who knows what to say, how to say it and has a clear and thoughtful solution. HSP’s are an asset to the world of business, art, medicine, psychology, politics, science and more and usually are highly empathetic so they make good friends. So whether you are an artist, a musician, a writer or just a really empathetic person, realize that you are very blessed, not cursed and once you learn to manage your sensitivity through asking for what you need and knowing who is safe for you, life becomes so much easier and even a lot of fun.
If you found this helpful, please e.mail me or call me at 847.491.1111 to schedule an appointment. Feel free to offer my article to others. I do this as a free service to promote relational healing. Feel free to offer my article to others. I do this as a free service to promote relational healing.
