A Starting Point For Highly Sensitive People…

Haven’t felt inspired to share my thoughts in writing here in a LONG while, but the first week of #highlysensitiveperson summer camp has filled me with some new creative inspiration. I want to document some ah-has me & the group will inevitable have this summer, so all HSPs can have access to some of these ideas. Our first week didn’t disappoint. It became so clear that most (if not all) of us had internalized somewhere down the road that our sensitives were something we needed to “heal” or “fix.” This leads me to my first weekly #hsp musing:

🌸THERE’S POWER IN REALIZING THERE WAS NEVER ANYTHING WRONG WITH YOUR HEIGHTENED SENSITIVITIES TO BEGIN WITH

Being an HSP [someone who has a highly-sensitive nervous system that results in them being deeply attuned to both their external environment and internal world] is often a genetic trait. The challenge is that a lot of people aren’t aware that they have a highly-sensitive nervous system.

Contrary to the connotation of “sensitive” being a rainbow-unicorn-fairy, HSPs (especially those unaware of their traits) can do a lot of harm. If an HSP internalizes shame about their own sensitivities, and/or copes with their sensitivities in unhealthy ways, their energy can de-regulate an entire family system. A lot of HSP children will be called too sensitive, high maintenance, cry babies, dramatic, complainers, loners, shy, spoiled, or made to feel like they are hard to love. Ironically, could these labels all be a projection coming from our parents’ own unhealed & unloved highly-sensitive inner-child? I think yes…being an HSP is often a genetic trait, after all!

So, what do we do now? What’s the first step in empowering the highly sensitive inner child within who feels shame, alienated, and just “not normal”? We start to realize that the label of “too sensitive” or “dramatic” was never about us. We start to realize that even though the connotation of the word “sensitive” is typically negative, that doesn’t mean we can’t reclaim the word as a term of empowerment. And we can take a big sigh of relief because…guess what? Despite what may have been projected onto you, your sensitivities aren’t something to heal, fix, or get rid of. Us #highlysensitivies may need some more time to learn how to properly ground and regulate ourselves, but that isn’t a life-sentence for a doomed life.

I’ll say it one more time for the people in the back: highly-sensitives, there was never anything wrong with you to begin with! Start here 🙏🏻🐢