As some of you know, I took off three months from my usual tasks (mostly answering emails, doing interviews, speaking, etc.) to focus more on writing and research. I was surprised by how happy it made me. Almost ecstatic! I realize that I thrive on being creative, as do most HSPs, and I have not […]
Why Can’t I Just be Normal?
By John Hughes Why can’t I just be normal? That question resonated with me. Deeply. It came from one of the men attending the first highly sensitive men’s conference this past March in Scotts Valley, California. I wrote it down. And I’ve thought about it since then. A lot. It truly describes how I feel […]
Big Picture Living During a Time of Global Crisis
Lately, I have been speaking about one way to reduce anxiety (a normal feeling for HSPs): Look at the big picture. I advise it now more than ever: Maintain the big picture. How? Ask yourself, what are your real risks? (Don’t minimize, but don’t catastrophize either.) What will things be like a year from now? Even two […]
Why Differential Susceptibility is so Important for You
I am not sure that I have written enough about differential susceptibility, which is a key to understanding HSPs and for HSPs to understand themselves. Differential susceptibility is the well-researched idea that HSPs are deeply affected by their environments, “for better and for worse.” With poor childhoods they are more likely than others to be […]
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 […]
What about a pilgrimage?
Summer is vacation time, so whether you can travel this summer or not, let’s talk about real HSP travel. As some of you know, last summer my husband and I embarked on a six-month “sabbatical,” as he called it. For me it was a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is defined as an “intentional journey, possibly a […]