HSPs are masters of emotional intelligence. They pick up on subtleties that less sensitive people miss and have a keen ability to read between the lines. Believe it or not, HSPs can be great entrepreneurs and marketers precisely because they tend to be so skilled at building rapport, listening, and empathizing.
There are ways to navigate the challenges of being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and still achieve success … without sacrificing their mental health, relationships, and boundaries. Even in tough professions like acting, music, and visual art.
The good news is that highly sensitive people aren't more or less emotionally intelligent than others. They just use emotional intelligence differently.
While there is certainly a major overlap in sensory processing experiences of both autistic and highly sensitive individuals, specifically sensitivity to sensory information, this does not mean they are the same thing.
There are indeed links between the two, but also certainly some differences. In 2015, clinical psychologist Elke van Hoof did research on high sensitivity and looked at a possible link with giftedness. She discovered that 87% of gifted people are also highly sensitive.
They have a hard time with conflict and tend to avoid confrontation. This can be challenging in the workplace or at home. They also feel responsible for others' expectations, which makes it harder to let people down. HSPS can overcome many of these downsides through therapy and learning to be more assertive.
HSPs who live with others need to create a quiet, safe place they can retreat to within their own home. Ear-protecting headphones can give an HSP control over their personal sense of peace in what's all too often a noisy, intrusive world. Giving up caffeine can help HSPs feel more collected and calm.
Most highly sensitive people display rare strengths in key areas of emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ) — the ability to recognize and understand emotions in themselves and others. These strengths including self-awareness and social-awareness.
As children, HSPs also have a rich, complex inner life, and are often seen as shy by adults. A very important thing to know about highly sensitive people is that they are born this way.
A verbal safe haven: HSPs thrive in relationships where they feel seen, heard, and valued. Since highly sensitive people feel things more deeply than most, their feelings often get hurt more quickly than others'. HSPs thrive in relationships where they feel seen, heard, and valued.
However, there are also benefits to being highly sensitive, especially in the right environment or with support. Some advantages include having a rich inner life and showing increased empathy. Being highly sensitive can also offer strengths in relationships and depth in processing information.
According to Aron, HSPs make up about 15 to 20 percent of the world's population.
Highly sensitive people activate brain areas to a greater extent to interpret in great depth and detail the information of the affective and emotional states of the people around them, especially those close to them.
Stress & Sensitivity Can Worsen With Age for HSPs. Here's How to Prevent That. If you are a highly sensitive person (HSP) you might be growing larger stress centers in your brain without even knowing it, and if you don't do anything about it, they will become even bigger.
Alone Time Helps HSPs Process Life
And nearly 30 percent of the population is highly sensitive, so it's not as uncommon as people think. When you're highly in tune with everything (and everyone) around you, it's natural to become overstimulated — and easily overwhelmed.
Highly sensitive people may be more affected by certain situations such as tension, violence, and conflict, which may lead them to avoid things that make them feel uncomfortable. You might be highly touched by beauty or emotionality. Highly sensitive people tend to feel deeply moved by the beauty they see around them.
Most HSPs are either INFJs or INFPs — the ones that don't tend to be ENFJs or ENFPs. Whether you're one or both, it's important to know what stresses you, what overstimulates you and what makes you feel calm, relaxed and happy.
It is important to note that many highly sensitive people are not narcissistic. Highly sensitive people are often aware, empathetic, and excellent listeners, which are the antithesis of narcissism.
Healthy HSP friendships deeply support each other, using listening as a two-way street. HSPs often put others' needs above their own, doing whatever they can to help a friend feel better. A highly sensitive person needs friends who appreciate their care, won't abuse it, and are happy to reciprocate.
The Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is a term coined by Dr Elaine Aron, to describe a neutral trait present in about 20% of the population of humans as well as non-humans. HSPs are also neurodivergent, their brains being wired differently.
High Sensitivity is therefore a form of neurodiversity as the brain is working differently from the expected norm. Just as with other forms of neurodiversity, people with High Sensitivity are more prone to stress as their systems can be overloaded with too much sensory input.