Being a highly sensitive person in this world can be quite a challenge. Highly sensitive people may struggle to feel safe in the world due to the excess amount of stimulation from the environment around them. Struggling with self regulation, the capacity to manage their feelings and can be prone to disassociation or numbness to reduce the overwhelming stimulation.
When we talk about stimulation its not just the physical stimulation of the world around them it’s the emotional stimulation that impacts them the most. As they are often by nature very empathic they may find themselves feeling other people’s feelings and emotions. As children this can be especially difficult with parents that aren’t able to help their children to be able to feel and process this over stimulation. So as a means to reduce the over stimulated children develop defensive and protective mechanisms to prevent the potential overwhelming affect.
These children are also more prone to be relationally traumatised especially if the primary caregiver views the sensitivity as a weakness and approaches a tough love strategy to prepare their child for the world, if you have a sensitive child this approach will cause more harm than good. Sensitive children need lots of positive mirroring and touch so they can start to feel safe and present in their bodies and to learn how to handle the extra stimulation. Taking sensitive children into nature or by creating a less stimulating more harmonious environment at home will also greatly assist the highly sensitive child.
Sensitive and traumatised adults often find their way to therapy to make sense of why the world can feel so difficult to understand and navigate. They are often struggling with trying to fit into a society around them that can often feel very unsupportive and often outright hostile. Part of the defensive patterns is they often suffer from intrusive negative self talk around their capacity to navigate what may appear to be simple and easy for others. Sometimes if life becomes to unbearable they check out of society and engage in fringe activities in an attempt to find some meaning or a place to belong.
From my experience the path to self empowerment for sensitive people is in the navigation and claiming of their inner worlds. To work through the developmental trauma and to find some form of intergration and cohesion in their body. To learn the strengths their sensitivity can teach them about themselves and the roles they can play in the community around them. It can also become a spiritual journey to connect through their sensitivity to their own inner spiritual wisdom and guidance which enable them to develop greater inner resources and knowledge of this strength.
Sensitive people need to come back into and feel safe in their bodies. By working towards an embodied experience of wholeness, sensitive people have the inner wisdom skill and knowledge to add ingredients into the world of more love, compassion, calmness and gentleness. Attributes that appear to be sadly missing in our ever busy world.