Are You a Highly Sensitive Person?

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• published: 10 Jul 2014
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http://www.sheepdressedlikewolves.com/highly-sensitive-person/ What comes to mind when you hear the word sensitive? Tears, low tolerance, thin skin, easily offended, inflexible, weak, shy, anxious, exaggerating the effects of pain. How often do we hear sensitive used as a criticism? A negative. Something that people need to get over in order to enter the real world. Maybe you've been on the receiving end of this kind of thing yourself, told you need to grow up, be stronger and to stop being so sensitive. Do you think about and notice little details that others seem to ignore? Do you long to get away from loud noises, bright lights, and overwhelming situations? Do you spend a lot of time worrying about how other people are feeling? Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with you. In fact, according to the research that Elaine Aron and others have done over the past few decades 15-20% of the population are what she describes as Highly Sensitive People: Carl Jung called it 'Innate Sensitiveness', referring to people who 'may process sensory data much more deeply and thoroughly due to a biological difference in their nervous systems'. This sensitivity boils down to the way we process the sensory input from the world and the fact that we get overwhelmed more easily than other people by the things around us that travel through our sensory processing system. It's built into who we are, and like it or not there is not much we can do about it. High processing sensitivity has already been found it in over 100 species including flies, birds, and fish and dogs. These highly sensitive beings have a different survival instinct, being observant before acting. Your brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply as a HSP. As a result you are also more easily overwhelmed. When things are too intense, complex, chaotic, or novel for a long time a HSP gets over-stimulated. This trait has often been misunderstood. Because HSPs prefer to look before entering new situations, they are often called "shy." But shyness is learned, not innate. It has also been compared to introversion, so you may be surprised to know that 30% of HSPs are extraverts. In cultures where it is not valued, HSPs tend to have low self-esteem. They are told "don't be so sensitive" so that they feel abnormal. We need to increase our awareness and understanding of high sensitivity as a society otherwise we will fail to appreciate and enjoy the many wonderful gifts that the highly sensitive among us can bring. Thanks to Elaine Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person for this information - check out her website and do the self-test to see if you too are a Highly Sensitive Person: http://hsperson.com