Highly Sensitive

Many people, including actors and other performers, identify themselves as shy - although some of them may actually be talking about being introverted. Shyness and introversion may seem to be the same in some ways, at least on the surface. They can overlap, and we may have both traits – but they are not the same thing. And they are not the same as the trait of high sensitivity.

"I could tell you how wonderful I think you are, because you are, but that means nothing if you are unwilling to let that sink in.   I empathize with this reluctance well and fully understand how hard it is to open to what we feel, let alone receive." ...

"As highly sensitive people, our ability to feel can be our greatest gift. However, the moment we eat to take the charge of all that we sense or jump into our heads to analyze it, the gift turns into a wicked curse."

by Sophia Dembling in The Introvert's Corner

"These scientists suggest something similar for extroversion: That good looking, strong babies and children are rewarded with lots of attention, which causes them to respond in kind, and a social style is born..."

"But Lukaszewski's theory is entirely plausible. If you're good looking, you get a lot of attention and getting that attention becomes part of who you are.

"But then you have someone like, say, Julia Roberts, who is both beautiful and introverted*."

“My decision to protect my sensitivity was one of the most influential acts of extreme self-care I’ve ever taken in my life,” writes Cheryl Richardson in her book The Art of Extreme Self-Care: Transform Your Life One Month at a Time. “It forced me to stop judging and disowning essential parts of myself and start honoring who I am at my core.”

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person, or HSP? Are you a highly sensitive MAN? If you are reading these words, there's a good chance that you are, or you know someone who's an HSP, or you're at least curious about what high sensitivity is.

A number of people claim to have had an idyllic or happy early life, the sort evoked by this photo. But for many of us who have been highly sensitive all our lives, or had especially challenging experiences as children, that image does not feel like a fit.

Author Jenna Forrest offers many helpful perspectives on growing up sensitive, and learning to embrace it.

http://goo.gl/3sKP5 - See more videos on Creative People: Personality and Mental Health.

http://goo.gl/jEVbv - Read notes and links for the webinar and see full length [i hour] video on a variety of topics that relate to creative people - such as High Sensitivity, Self Concept & Self Esteem, Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and other traits and experiences that impact how we develop creativity.

From my webinar: Creative People: Personality and Mental Health. See other excerpts at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLssCE11cbAfxfb3X9FFiCiXAzcHlqX-F4

Because highly sensitive people absorb so much stimulation from their environment, we are more susceptible to these feelings of anxiety. A recent study showed that people with a more sensitive ‘startle’ reflex, that is, highly sensitive people, are more susceptible to anxiety disorders because we have different genes than others, making it harder for us to deal with emotional arousal.

"For a sensitive person, clutter is an energy drain because it’s overstimulating (one of the biggest challenges for a sensitive person).

"It affects your energy to work in a messy room because there’s so much more to pay attention to."

Coach Jenna Avery, in her newsletter - see her site http://talentdevelop.com/JenAvery

Creative people are often highly sensitive. Psychologist Elaine Aron, PhD summarizes the personality trait of high sensitivity (sensory processing sensitivity): “Your brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply.” She thinks all Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) “are creative, by definition.” In this short overview, I include quotes from my interviews with other psychologists: Cheryl Arutt and Ted Zeff.

I don’t have any particular psychic ability, but am fascinated by it, and appreciate the more sympathetic depictions in movies such as “Hereafter” directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Cécile De France and Matt Damon as a professional psychic. ...

In our interview, Judith Orloff, MD noted she had psychic abilities at an early age, but her family did not encourage her to develop them. She is now integrating those talents with traditional medicine, and is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA.

I am a Highly Sensitive Person. What's more, I am a Highly Sensitive Man.

"When people think about a person who is "Highly Sensitive", the default assumption seems to be that we're talking about someone who's a fussy tender flower who gets their feelings hurt at the drop of a hat.

"Whereas that kind of emotional sensitivity might be part of what makes some people an HSP, the definition explored in these pages goes far beyond that, and does not revolve around emotional sensitivity."

"I think a strong case can be made that not only is it OK to be an introvert or to have introverts on our teams; but just like there are advantages to being a bit more extroverted, there are also certain advantages that introverts have."

How do you really see yourself? Do you understand what makes you “tick”? What motivates you? What pushes your emotional and physical “buttons”? The answers to these questions and how you act and re...

Being highly sensitive probably increases our vulnerability to anxiety. I'm sure that has been the case for me, and I have had varying degrees of anxiety for most of my life.

Elaine Aron, PhD thinks “high sensitivity increases the impact of all emotionally tinged events, making childhood trauma particularly scarring.”

She also notes that some sensitive adolescents may drink and use drugs to try to overcome anxiety or depression through self-medication.

We all have our own stories. I believe as sensitive souls, we tend to hold onto these stories a bit tighter than most.

Jeff Foster writes, “It’s no surprise that the word “depressed” is spoken phonetically as ‘deep rest’. We can view depression not as a dysfunction or mental illness, but on a deeper level, as a profound, and very misunderstood, state of deep rest, unconsciously entered into when we are completely exhausted by the weight of our own false story of ourselves.”

"Highly sensitive people probably make good counselors and recruiters, said Jagiellowicz, because of their attention to detail. They are able to more deeply process details as well as emotions..."