People Who Live With High Sensitivity

Are you a highly sensitive person? If you are, it won’t take much thought on your part to answer the question. Highly sensitive people know they are. Actually, its pretty hard to miss when we live with a lot of sensitivity. I’d like to take away a stigma about high sensitivity first of all. Being highly sensitive is NOT a bad trait, it is ingrained within the human being. If you are highly sensitive at some point in life you have heard someone say, “Stop being so sensitive”, or “You are too sensitive”. These type of statements tend to make sensitive people feel that they are somehow “wrong” or deviant in their personality. Actually, it is not a personality trait at all. It is more like how certain people are created. Being someone who is highly sensitive is very different than having sensitive moments. A highly sensitive person can not change what they are. They are how they are. Not only are they not wrong but most of the time are very right about so many things.

People with high sensitivity are very empathetic and pick up on everyone else’s “stuff“. This can be emotional, physical, and even spiritual. I recall a time when one of my daughters was on her monthly cycle and I told her to take an Advil or something because I was having cramps! I no longer had those cycles so it sure was not coming from me. This is only one example of physical sensitivity. Emotional sensitivity works the same way. A sensitive person will pick up on other people’s internal anger, frustration, joy, agitation, changes in state etc. Many feel this is attributed to intuition but it goes far beyond that and deeper. Here are some things highly sensitive people experience:

1. Feeling others’ physical pain
2. Picking up on others’ emotional state
3. Having extreme spiritual awareness
4. Physical sensitivity within themselves
5. Sensitive to medications and can feel them immediately when taken (and other substances, including how sugar reacts in the body)
6. Sensitive to caffeine or stimulants
7. Very intuitive
8. Love meditative time; listening to the sound of their own heartbeat
9. Love to be deep in thought
10. Are very creative
11. Very sensitive in large crowds of people and over stimulated by everyone else’s stuff
12. Loves alone time
13. Very inner reflective, intelligent, and a sensitive compassionate heart
14. Deep empathy for others’ plight in life either in person or at a distance
15. Retreats or reacts strongly to aggressive outbursts in others
16. Sensitive to strong smells or odors
17. Often cries very easily

These are just some things off the top of my head. Sensitive people “hear” spiritually very easily, and can be very understanding and loving due to extreme empathy. Times of rest are often needed and desired because of over stimulation. Very sensitive people might display what seem to be forms of PTSD, ADHD, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, or other mental states that seem similar.

If you are highly sensitive it is not a flaw but a gift. You are a compassionate asset to the rest of the world and not a liability. You are not deviant only different. You see into others very easily. No one gets anything by you. You have an awareness and often spiritual insight that astounds others, even yourself. You might have thought something was really wrong with you most of your life but that is not true! It is actually the opposite. There is so much that is right with you! People can say of you ” You hit the nail on the head” over and over again, because you “know“.

If you are highly sensitive and the above rings true for you…

My advice: Use it to your, and others, advantage. You are made this way for a reason and there is no one like you. You have a discernment that others might not have. What an asset to have in this world! Work with yourself and not against yourself. Don’t try to shut down what you pick up but embrace it! Remember you bring on stronger that which you resist. In order to not experience very uncomfortable feelings, go with the flow. The flow knows where to lead you and will not let you down. God made you very unique and its time to see yourself as a gift, not as someone who is flawed.

With a lot of love from here,

Dr. Jenine Marie Howry, PhD

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