With my upcoming book, Spirituality Through a Highly Sensitive Lens: An Objective Look at Meditation Methods and Enlightenment (coming out this April), I’ll be sharing two parts in each blog post—the first will explore research, HSP news, and current insights, while the second will offer a more spiritual reflection and deeper inner perspective. CLARIFYING SPS, […]
Latest Research & Something More Personal and “Spiritual”
PART I: THE LATEST RESEARCH These are the studies that have appeared since my last blog and that I wanted to share. Each has a heading, the reference in the journal where it appeared, my short description, and a “Bottom Line” to skip to if you wish! These will also be added to the big […]
Those Two Holiday Gifts
As I began doing with the last email, I begin this blog by sharing some of the latest research. My plan is that the second half of each blog is going to be more personal. This time it will contain the second of my two holiday gifts. But here is the latest research and my […]
The Latest Research (& my experience of being both an HSP and HSS on vacation in Europe)
My plan for at least a while is to report on some of the latest research—a few studies that are well done and might be interesting to you—and then in the same blog write something more helpful and personal. In this case, it is probably more personal than helpful! And long. So I start with […]
Time to Say a Little about Aging, Medical Stuff, and HSPs—Plus a Research Study on Aging HSPs
Although I have been asked many times to write something for “older HSPs,” how we in particular may experience aging and the problems that come with it, I have resisted, resisted, resisted. So many people my age are obsessed with this stuff. Honestly, I have always thought the subject boring. We are all getting older. […]
The Research Nails It: Sensitivity is About Depth of Processing
The trait of high sensitivity is in essence all about processing information more deeply. This noticing of details and their meaning is the basic survival trait inherited by a minority of individuals within many species, humans included. This trait allows sensitive individuals to notice opportunities and threats that others miss. Why always a minority? Why […]
Are Highly Sensitive People More Prone to Illness?
I understand that on social media the question keeps arising about various health issues to which HSPs seem to be more prone–illnesses such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and migraines. The short answer: It may be an HSP also has an illness that they see as related to their sensitivity. But there is no clear research […]
Revisiting Vulnerable Narcissism and HSPs
In August 2022, I wrote a blog strongly questioning an article saying that high sensitivity (HS) can “overlap” with vulnerable narcissism (as opposed to the grandiose form). Scott Barry Kaufman wrote a good blog on this too. Vulnerable narcissists are a relatively new idea, a category of narcissists born from the observation that they are highly focused on themselves—”am […]
Highly Sensitive High Sensation Seekers—Giving Equal Love to Both Parts
This blog is about high sensitivity and high sensation seeking because I want you to stay informed about recent research and we just published an article on this subject by Bianca Acevedo, Art Aron, me, Tracy Cooper, and Robert Marhenke: “Sensory processing sensitivity and its relation to sensation seeking,” in the 2023 issue of Current Research in […]
Mental Health Awareness Month – Supporting HSPs & Highly Sensitive Youths – Guest Blog by Alane Freund, MS, MA
Guest Blog by Alane Freund, MS, MA May is mental health awareness month. For 2023, the Mental Health Awareness month campaign “is focused on how surroundings impact mental health, and we are calling for individuals to look around, look within.” In 1949, Mental Health America (MHA) designated May as Mental Health Month to raise awareness […]