10 Life-Changing Actions for Highly Sensitive People

Highly sensitive people are often seen as weak or broken people, but strong emotions are not a sign of weakness. Instead, they are a feature of a compassionate, passionate, and genuinely energetic person. A sensitive person is not collapsed or broken. The problem lies in society's understanding of these people's nature and their view, which has become turbulent, helpless, and emotionally weak. There is absolutely nothing wrong with expressing your honest and sincere feelings.

Note: This article is taken from the writer ANGEL CHERNOFF, in which she talks to us about the most important actions that highly sensitive people can take in their lives to achieve success and achieve their goals.

The importance of having highly sensitive people in the community:

People who are sometimes described as emotional or overly complex are the fabric or social structure that keeps our dream alive by living in a more compassionate, considerate, caring, and humane world. So, never be ashamed or embarrassed about letting your feelings, tears, and smiles come out in the open and radiate into our world.

However, it's not easy because allowing our feelings and emotions to be shown can be confusing and thorny. You may sometimes wonder why ordinary tasks, which others accept and calmly deal with, burden you, or what makes you think carefully about the neglect and insults you have been subjected to, but you must forget them, or what drives you to amplify the very tiny details, which are not understandable to others; however, it is like being born without a specific layer of protection that protects you from the shocks and excessive influence around you, which others seem to have.

Despite your many attempts to conceal, numb, or ignore your feelings and emotions, the comments and observations of others regarding your overthinking, over-sensitivity, and the need to turn into a cruel and strict person continue to penetrate the shield you created and surround yourself with, which puts you in a state of wonder and surprise and makes you wonder about the defect you have.

I know this well because I accidentally discovered the term “highly sensitive people” when I was in my mid-40s, which led me to find out the pleasure of being one of the thousands of people who discover their highly sensitive personalities and share their qualities and sufferings.

I have learned that most highly sensitive people feel lonely and isolated from others, as well as constantly different and misunderstood many times without knowing the reason behind it usually. Still, they need to realize that they have a simple characteristic or feature explaining the symptoms and unique, confusing, and mysterious traits.

Sensory-processing Sensitivity:

A scientific term for this is Sensory Processing Sensitivity; psychotherapist and researcher Elaine Aron estimates that 15-20% of people have nervous systems that treat provoking or stimulating factors within tense intensity. They have deeper thinking and more intense feelings and sensations than others, both physically and emotionally. They are also easier to stimulate and increase their emotions to a large degree.

Characteristics of Highly Sensitive People:

According to my research, some successful historical figures belong to the category of highly sensitive people, including physicist Albert Einstein, American leader Martin Luther King, and inventor Steve Jobs, which I find great news because it means that highly sensitive people do not suffer from flaws or have inherently negative qualities. Still, when they do not realize how to deal with their sensitivity and take care of it, they end up pushing themselves hard, trying to keep up with the community around them, staying on the level of their thinking and habits, and trying to do the things that others seem to do and deal with smoothly. They are keen to do them better than those around them, which causes them problems.

Highly sensitive people invest in talents for some time, which they possess excellently. We find them creative students, hardworking employees, and loyal family members who dedicate their lives to the happiness of their families. However, their previous behavior will negatively affect their lives when they continue to do so beyond their abilities. This negative impact appears in the form of continued diseases, health problems, and muscle tension that they can not get rid of in any way, in addition to their endless fatigue, nervousness, and stress without any good reason for it.

10 actions you can take to stop suffering and start growing and thriving in your life:

1. Stop looking for people or things to help you and fix your life:

Allergies are a characteristic of mood, not a disease or medical disorder, so you don't have any defect or connate problem by nature, but most licensed doctors, unfortunately, do not understand this because they are not aware of the sensitivity of sensory processing, which is a recent area in health research. Indeed, it is likely that people who are more sensitive to allergies are more susceptible to food, chemicals, drugs, etc, and to hyper-alarm. Then they feel psychological pressure and tension faster, which can cause them other health problems. However, psychological sensitivity itself does not need treatment.

Successful sensitive people realize that they are not psychologically broken, so if your mind is exhausted actively looking for another solution to eliminate your flaws and negatives, know that the resolution to living in harmony with your sensitive nature lies within you.

2. Tell yourself that you are not a scammer or fraudster whenever the need arises:

Impostor syndrome is not exclusive or specific to highly sensitive people; we find it in others too. Most hardworking people, those who are proficient in their work, and those with high achievements are victims of this disturbing fear. However, the severe discomfort of discovering and knowing about them is often continuous and permanent in the sensitive person, which is normal because the sensitive person spends their life feeling different from others attempting to get along with them and integrate into society. Perhaps - as a sensitive person - you attribute your tears to the dust that entered your eyes as you watch a silly television advertisement, which was the real reason for your feelings and crying.

You may agree to sign up for the fun race your company runs despite your aversion to running and knowing well that you'll be ashamed and embarrassed about how long it takes your body to recover afterward. Still, even if you're used to flaunting your sensitivity with pride, you're unlikely to have escaped the cultural pressure to disguise yourself and your true personality to fit the prevailing norms.

Successful sensitive people respect the fact that their nervous systems are inherently different from 80-85% of people, so if you're constantly thinking about changing who you are and what you should be doing. Still, you can't, you need to understand that appreciating your accomplishments and unique strengths allows you to show yourself more smoothly, even when you're different from the group of people around you who don't belong to them.

3. Look for people or spirits who are similar to you in inclinations, souls, and thoughts so that you know that you are not alone:

You may feel different and lonely, but you are not. Most of the highly sensitive people suffered chaos and confusion in their isolation before they discovered the massive number of people who had an idea of how a highly sensitive person feels and understood their nature and feelings, which made them feel an overwhelming sense of strength stemming from the support they receive from people similar to them with their souls, and want to return the favor and support you.

So, the solution is to spend time with sensitive people who are prosperous, or open up and prepare for the possibility of doing so. At least, they not only know how to control and adjust their sensitivity, but they also know how to invest and enjoy their superpowers. They also know how you feel helpless, and they can offer you their experience, wisdom, and knowledge directly to help you take advantage of your sensitivity and sensitive feelings and make them work for your benefit.

Successful sensitive people appreciate and enjoy the power of their allergy and that of others, so if you feel that you are not getting enough support or help or that you are misunderstood from time to time, find yourself a coach, mentor, or group with understanding, knowledge, and experience in the subject of allergies, who can understand and appreciate your nature, and then strengthen your relationship and communication with them.

4. Find, absorb, and enjoy the hidden or latent positivity of every situation you are exposed to, absorbing and enjoying it:

The mind is a tool that shapes and develops experiments, experiences, and concepts based on the reality we live in. If you think the outside world is dangerous, your mind will be inherently compelled to search for evidence of danger. If you believe that the world is full of love and tenderness, you will be able to see more opportunities for love and seize them. You always get more of something when you focus on it.

For highly sensitive people, the more negative the environment around them, the more suffering and hardship they suffer, but otherwise, the more positive the environment in which a highly sensitive person lives, the more prosperous they will be and the more successful they will be and even exceeds the successes of others.

Thoughts stimulate your nervous system and act as a stimulus to it. Recognizing the existence of negativity, then forgetting about it, and getting rid of it after that is one of the most important things that a sensitive person can do. It is important to warn here against ignoring or dismissing negativity because what you resist will stay in your life. So, immerse yourself in positive thoughts and attitudes that send you a sense of satisfaction or at least give you a reassuring sense of comfort and calm.

Successful sensitive people choose to see the world around them as redundant or full of opportunities for which they can feel grateful, as well as spend their time in a positive atmosphere, so if you feel overwhelmed at the mercy of your emotions and circumstances, you should understand that your thoughts and the emotional charges they trigger are always under your control.

5. Finding new perspectives on what you see as your old flaws:

Gifts include deep thinking and an innate talent to see all the views, opinions, outcomes, and consequences of something. Still, you become smoothly drained and exhausted as a result of constant alertness when you are attentive and strongly following all the details. When you do not understand the reason behind your feelings and actions as such, it is very easy to put them wrongly within the framework of defects and count them as negatives or weaknesses in your personality.

But the truth is that these weaknesses are smoothly your unmet needs and unique talents that you have to promote and benefit, and by reframing your past and nurturing your present, you are setting yourself up for future success.

Successful sensitive people rethink or look at their old concepts and perceptions due to their information and deep knowledge of their sensitivity, so if the highly sensitive, neglected, and even hated parts of yourself are weighing you down and exhausting you, seek to discover the bright side of yourself. You will find some of your greatest strengths from intuition, insight, conscience, and other benign features.

6. Treat yourself with kindness and tenderness:

You must be a very affectionate and sympathetic person as a very sensitive person to the extent that giving others' comfort and needs a priority and putting them over your own is instinctive for you. In addition, you are often the best critic of yourself, as you pressure yourself a lot to reach your goals. Then you feel guilty and very shot and criticize yourself to a large extent when you miss the aim and do not achieve your desired target to the extent that you criticize yourself in ways you never imagined you would use to criticize or judge others.

Controlling the annoying critic inside you is necessary to sympathize with yourself, but in contrast to the common belief, you should not do so by ignoring them and not caring too much for them. Still, you can take the opportunity and invest your strength and talent in deep thinking to control it by listening to your ideas without judgment and criticism. These ideas may carry a layer of hidden wisdom deep, then shift your focus to ideas that provoke feelings and sensations that are more pleasant and loving of you, as you will become better able to choose the actions and procedures necessary to provide love and care for yourself and others around you in your life full of better feelings.

Successful sensitive people show themselves the same compassion and love that they are very good at giving to others naturally, and this may seem like selfishness, arrogance, or self-admiration at first, but it is not. So if your inner voice criticizing your personality insults or underestimates you, respond by showing kindness and respect towards yourself because it is the proper antidote or treatment.

7. Create healthy boundaries, not high emotional walls:

We live today in a civilization that values temporary psychological pain relief and pressure on the soul to persevere and continue much more than it appreciates sensitivity in human personality. We have heard many aphorisms during our upbringing, such as (who asks for the glory stay up all night) or (no gain without pain) or (survival of the strongest) or (life is not fair, so get used to it). We respect people who show determination and perseverance to overcome their severe predicaments and scary adversities.

As a highly sensitive person, your spontaneous or subjective reaction to dilemmas may be to stop talking or moving as a result of fear, stress, or struggle to become solid and more powerful, as well as to build walls around yourself to protect them from harm, which may be emotional walls such as concealing or suppressing your feelings or causing a massive dramatic disturbance to distract attention from the true causes of pain, or physical borders, such as accumulating layers of excess weight to hide behind, or mental walls, such as somehow losing focus.

You may let all the boundaries you have created collapse and fall at once. Thus, you absorb the energies of others around you and be affected by them subconsciously, feel internal devastation due to unexpected events and feelings, and try to escape from those feelings and avoid them by overthinking everything, such as planning, research, and analysis endlessly while you lose contact with your intuition completely. Through this, you confuse diligence and work a lot to the point of exhaustion and fatigue, and between empathy and extreme identification, and excessive compassion and tolerance. So, you feel guilty and self-flagellations because you have not set better boundaries. It is a vicious cycle.

Successful sensitive people combine firmness and kindness in the personal boundaries they build for themselves. If you have difficulties prioritizing your own needs - which isn't an innate thing for an overly sensitive person- make a conscious decision to practice saying no with love or set aside time to relax and recharge and decide to feel good about it.

8. Pay close attention to your body to avoid emotional swing:

Most highly sensitive people learn to ignore the messages their bodies send to them. They may stop focusing on them altogether to avoid the fatigue that may overwhelm their lives because of them, or concentrate very carefully on the needs and requirements of others rather than their needs to be as much as others' expectations about them, which makes them tight in all matters of their lives and does not know the meaning of moderation; between too much and too little, too fast and too slow, back and forth, between a state of excessive activity and motivation, and the state of extreme boredom to the point of dullness and extreme monotony, or a healthy diet, and then they suffer from eating escessively, or severe exercise and they need several days after that to recover, and so forth.

But successful sensitive people pay close attention to the natural sensations in their bodies and accept that they are not always comfortable. Still, they trust their bodies to show them the right path and behavior. If you are used to hiding from your feelings or overcoming the stage of exhaustion, learn to recognize the subtle and accurate signs that your body sends you to warn you about being over-stimulated so that you can achieve emotional balance.

9. Design healthy habits to fit your unique needs:

You will eventually pay for all your actions, hard-working hours followed by heavy sweating in the gym and controlling the chaos that spreads in the house, and all of this is fueled by poor diets and getting a minimum of sleep or rest. It is easy to fall into this trap because you smoothly live your life like others.

In addition, some seemingly healthy habits affect the nervous system of highly sensitive people, such as eating foods that some claim to be healthy, but they are highly processed and saturated with sugar and manufactured food additives, or doing intense exercise that takes a long time to recover from its effects.

If you allow yourself to be over-stimulated and over-alerted and then regenerate your energy and resources incorrectly, you put yourself at risk of chronic disease, which is what most highly sensitive people have learned after suffering and challenging experiences. Still, at the same time, if you over-protect yourself, you will not express your genius and talents, which can also lead to stress and ill health.

Successful sensitive people practice habits that benefit them, so if you face difficulties and problems with your energy and well-being, you should prioritize your life to practice habits that develop and strengthen these aspects of your life, such as getting more sleep, staying alone for long, as well as limiting habits that lead to excessive stimulation or depletion of your energy and stress, such as activities that lead to high blood pressure, even if some of them claim to be healthy habits.

10. Stop restraining and suppressing your sensitivity:

After spending your life raining down on a barrage of stimuli, pushing sensitivity away from conscious awareness becomes instinctive, such as ignoring your ongoing sensations to pretend or claim that you don't care about them or relieving strong feelings - whether good or bad - so that you don't feel that your life is unstable, or suppress feelings so that you can have a break from feeling anything at all.

This self-defense mechanism may deceive your conscious mind. Still, it can't deceive your sensitive body, seeping into your health, relationships, career, and all aspects of your life, or contributing to the build-up of tension within you until you have to compromise.

Successful sensitive people also give up on clinging to control, so when you release the energy you used to control yourself firmly, you release the talents and gifts of your sensitivity, which have led you astray from compassion, creativity, and joy, to name a few, and also allow your true potential and talents to emerge and shine.

In conclusion:

As you deal with the above actions, remember that the secret to your success and prosperity as a highly sensitive person is to recognize that it is perfectly acceptable to be so above all else, with all the challenges and difficulties you can go through and all your strengths.

You should invest your mind and talent in deep thinking to know the hidden information and sciences, deliberately refocus with all care on the positivity and possibilities available to you. Invest your body with deep feelings to hear your emotions and feelings, pay attention to them well, and stay within the range of excitement and optimal stimulation of your nervous system as much as possible. Use your great and high awareness to accept all the situations that confront you in your life. If that seems strange to most people, most people live in similar conditions somewhere in the world.