highly sensitive people
High sensitivity is a form of temperament — an innate trait or characteristic found in about 15 - 20% of the population.
Are you:
Easily affected by other people’s moods?
Aware of subtleties others don’t seem to pick up on?
Conscientious — do you try to avoid making mistakes or upsetting others?
Do you:
Have a rich and complex inner life?
Become uncomfortably overstimulated when a lot is going on around you?
Get nervous when being observed?
*not full list of traits. Click here for a self-test.
harnessyour gifts
Being highly sensitive can often seem to be all about deficits or conversely, being ‘too much’ — but only if you’re unfairly judging yourself through the lens of the less-sensitive majority!
Truth is, being highly sensitive often means you have gifts to offer that are very valuable, and absolutely vital at this time.
When brought into balance, skills like:
noticing what’s out of place, or what needs adjustment
foresight and planning
attention to subtleties
concern for harmony
are invaluable to relationships, to the workplace, communities and society as a whole.
High sensitivity is not fragility — but a trait that can be harnessed, just like any other natural ability or aptitude.
reparenting the highly sensitive inner child
Do you often feel surprised by intense bouts of emotions that seem to come out of nowhere?
Do you often ignore or have difficulty sensing — and accepting — your own physical or emotional cues and limits? e.g. discomfort, hunger, fatigue, disappointment…
Many HSPs often do not have the experience of having their sensitivity acknowledged in an empowering way in their early years.
As a result, whenever difficult thoughts, emotions or experiences arise, coping mechanisms can often include hyper-intellectualizing, suppressing, numbing, dismissing & negative self-labeling.
Reparenting is a way of re-patterning the ways you cope with stressful situations and the thoughts and emotions that arise as a result. Nurturing your highly sensitive inner child involves learning new ways of acknowledging, validating and meeting these unmet emotional needs while avoiding unnecessary suffering.
LEARN TO NURTURE YOURSELF
Reparenting can include…
— replacing negative self-talk especially when faced with distressing emotions
— challenging notions of perceived ‘weakness’ ‘failure’ ‘laziness’ when feeling tired or overwhelmed, or when not over-working oneself to the point of overwhelm and overstimulation
— learning to notice and become more attuned to bodily sensations and the messages your body and emotions are sending you
— learning self-soothing techniques and increasing tolerance for distress, becoming unconditionally accepting of all feelings that arise