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.
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.
How much downtime do we need as HSPs to thrive? The general recommended amount is eight to ten hours in bed daily, two hours per day of unstructured, alone time (reading, meditating, outside in nature, etc.), one complete day off per week, and one week off for every season.
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.
Being a highly sensitive person is not a diagnosis or a medical condition and does not require treatment. However, HSPs may find relief from this label for their experiences. They may receive meaningful support from therapy and resources or books about HSP.
The positive traits of people that are highly sensitive include emotional awareness, empathy for others, the ability to pick up on small cues that others miss, dedication to fairness and justice, passionate and innovative thinking, and an ability to demonstrate good leadership through valuing others.
Living with High Sensitivity
HSPs may struggle to adapt to new circumstances, may demonstrate seemingly inappropriate emotional responses in social situations, and may easily become uncomfortable in response to light, sound, or certain physical sensations.
Are Highly Sensitive People More Susceptible to Trauma? In a word, yes. As highly sensitive people, our nervous systems are more finely tuned than those of non-HSPs. This means we respond to all stimuli in a stronger way, including traumatic experiences.
The good news is that highly sensitive people aren't more or less emotionally intelligent than others. They just use emotional intelligence differently.
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.
Sleep is essential for HSPs to process their emotions and soothe their ramped-up senses. It's important to be aware of sleep-hindering habits, such as: overdoing. overidentifying with emotions.
In the emotionally neglectful family, the HSP learns they are overly emotional. They don't know that their emotions are personal expressions of who they are. Instead, they learn that they are different, damaged, weak, and wrong.
There's good news if you are a highly sensitive parent – you usually make very good parents. You might be more sensitive to things 4. But it also means that you recognize what makes your child special and unique. You can sense your child's needs and respond quickly.
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.
"Many individuals who are high in neuroticism become hypersensitive to situations that trigger strong emotions, such as sadness," he adds. In other words, those who have high neuroticism feel emotions very deeply, resulting in them crying more often.
According to Aron, 15 to 20 percent of the population is born with a high level of sensitivity. “When you know that you are highly sensitive, it reframes your life,” says Aron. Knowing that you have this trait will enable you to make better decisions.
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.
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.
Serotonin Transporter and Highly Sensitive People:
HSPs have a variant of this gene (officially called 5-HTTLPR). The 5-HTTLPR gene variant increases sensitivity to surroundings and is associated with learning from experience. The presence of the gene enhances the effects of both good and adverse childhood experiences.
Highly sensitive people's brains are wired differently, and they process information and make decisions differently. Decision fatigue can affect anyone especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but highly sensitive people feel that exhaustion more intensely.
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.
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.
For example, we know that sensitivity seems to run in families – if someone had one highly sensitive parent, they are more likely to be highly sensitive. However, this doesn't mean we've found a specific gene that is linked to sensitivity.