Originally published in Comfort Zone Newsletter: November 2013 Do you have trouble making decisions? I do, and it seems to be true of most HSPs. Indeed, having made many difficult ones in my life, I joke that I have “decision trauma” from truly agonizing over some especially painful choices, in which whatever I did would […]
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Strengthening Your Decisions Through “Cardiac Exercise”
Originally published in Comfort Zone Newsletter: August 2005. No, I don’t have in mind aerobics. This is subtler. Because I had a perfectly harmless but pretty intense (to an HSP) heart arrhythmia in conjunction with the lung infection this spring (which I’m now over), I reread a book called The Heart’s Code by Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. (Broadway, […]
Coping with Uncertainty
I do not have to tell HSPs that we are now mired in personal and global uncertainty, because we hate uncertainty. We always process decisions deeply (e.g., struggle), and it’s hardest when there are so many uncertainties and future influences that we can think of all too well but cannot control. Right now, almost everything […]
Graceful Boundaries, Part III – Controlling your Boundaries is all about Volume
Being kind yet clear, compassionate yet self-protective, honest yet discreet—it really does require grace. But to be clear: There’s nothing graceful about having no control over your boundaries. We HSPs like to consider the needs of others and the situation before we pursue our own wishes. “I wonder what the rest of you are needing […]
Graceful Boundaries – Part I
While working on the movie Sensitive and in Love, I was looking at the book Highly Sensitive People in Love and noticed I never discussed boundaries directly, although the subject was there often. Many people now are writing about HSPs and boundaries, so I think I will chime in, first with the basics, then something […]
Introversion, Extroversion and the Highly Sensitive Person
Guest Blog By: Jacquelyn Strickland, LPC According to the documentary Sensitive: The Untold Story, there are 1.4 billion highly sensitive people (HSPs) in the world (15-20% of the population). As Elaine Aron’s research has shown, 30% of that 15-20% of the HSP population are sensitive extroverts – or approximately 420 million HSPs. Unfortunately, due in great part […]
Eight Ways to Take Care of Yourself, Please, While I’m Gone (and Beyond)
For about two years I have been planning a six-month sabbatical beginning this summer, a good space of time completely “off the grid.” Some serious downtime. I am enjoying excellent health so it has nothing to do with that. It is simply that some shifts in my life and my husband’s have allowed this for […]
FAQ: Is Sensory Processing (or Integration) Disorder (SPD) the same as Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS)?
Answered by Elaine Aron, Ph.D., Barbara Allen-Williams, and Jacquelyn Strickland, LPC No, they are not the same, although the confusion is understandable. Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS, HSP, or Highly Sensitive Person) is not a condition, a disorder, or a diagnosis. It is a neutral trait that evolved in 20% of the human population and many […]
FAQ: Are highly sensitive people more creative and intelligent than other people?
(After all, you said that in bad environments they might do worse than others, but in good environments they can do better than others?) Good question for which I do not have a simple answer. Years ago we did IQ tests and we did not find any difference. However, taking an IQ test is not […]
FAQ: If this trait is genetic, does that mean I can’t do anything about it?
Some people do find it discouraging to find they have something “genetic,” as it could be taken to imply that change will be impossible—it seems to invalidate that usual idea that our problems are due to our past and can be unlearned or healed. Maybe you have heard about the newer thinking, that there is […]