being highly sensitive in a non-hsp world.
There’s no getting around it, the world we live in was not created for Highly Sensitive Persons. There’s intense pressure to meet deadlines, race from one commitment to the other, and never take a moment for a breath. The air is often heavy with fumes and most of us don’t get much time in nature.
We are supposed to be able to withstand heart wrenching news of violence, natural disasters, poverty, oppression, and suffering without it interfering with our day of productivity.
As Highly Sensitive Persons, our brains process and reflect information more deeply. We are much more attuned to our environments, and we are more affected by what’s happening around us and within us.
Noticing everything is obviously going to overwhelm and exhaust us quicker than our non-HSP peers. This doesn’t mean anything is wrong with us, we are simply more dialed in to the subtleties of everyday existence.
It’s important for us to find ways to care for ourselves and honor our deep processing, even if the society at large does not value this. Caring for ourselves can look as simple as reducing the harsh lighting, going into public places when there are less people around, or making sure that we get in nature to decompress.
It can also look like changing our work, reducing the amount of time we spend around draining people, and disengaging from relationships that are not rooted in reciprocity.
