What Does It Mean to Be a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?
“Why do I feel everything so deeply?” If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, you’re not alone. Many people move through life feeling overwhelmed by […]
Do you identify as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)? I do – and if you do too, you know that HSPs feel deeply.
If you identify as an HSP, you need help! As an HSP when you feel your feelings, you feel them deeply. It’s an essential part of being highly sensitive. And it’s a part many of our partners and loved ones have a hard time understanding. Many of our parents responded to our high sensitivity with confusion and anger. We were made to feel wrong for having deep feelings. We were sent to our room, told to go outside, told we were “weak,” “too sensitive,” that we needed to be “tough” in order to survive in this world. Maybe some of our parents were trying to help the best way they knew how at the time.
But since most of us weren’t allowed our feelings growing up, especially sad or angry ones, we’re not sure how to have them now — and we can make ourselves wrong when we experience them in such a deep way.
And because we’re sensitive and feel our feelings deeply, our nervous systems can get easily flooded – especially during relationship conflict.
Conflict for us can be deeply confusing and upsetting. Because we grow up in a culture that doesn’t appreciate our unique gifts many of us learned to suck it up. This often meant putting on armor during conflict — we can come off as harsh and unyielding. It’s one area people get confused about a lot around high sensitivity. Just because someone is highly sensitive doesn’t mean they’re warm and fuzzy all the time. If we were always warm and sweet our culture would beat us up pretty badly. So some of us learn to compensate by being great warriors in battle!
But if we can soothe ourselves from the get-go – I mean like from the moment we wake up – then when we encounter conflict we’re aren’t as easily provoked. And if we can stay conscious through conflict and soothe ourselves, we become even better communicators.
What does this look like for you? Maybe this means going on a news diet for a while? Perhaps waking up and slowing down first thing, instead of revving up? How about the idea of taking on a practice, like a gratitude journal, meditation, or a morning walk?
If you’d like to learn more, call me!
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HSP Highly Sensitive Person
Do you identify as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)? I do – and if you do too, you knowthat HSPs feel deeply. Because we’re sensitive […]