If You Were Called 'Too Sensitive'
If You Were Called 'Too Sensitive'
Daily practices to honor your sensitivity
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If you were told growing up that you were too sensitive, you probably had an ability to feel and acknowledge emotions that others didn’t allow themselves to feel. You probably had the strength to hold emotions that felt too heavy for others. You probably had the willingness to look at the uncomfortable, shadowy parts that others learned to fear.
In our society, sensitivity is rarely muttered in a complimentary way. It’s usually said as a jab in an argument, as a way to imply that what you’re feeling is wrong. What would happen if children’s sensitivity were complimented from an early age? You’re so sensitive. You have such a unique ability to attune to other people’s emotions. You experience life so deeply and fully.
It’s interesting to me how sensitivity has this negative connotation when sensitivity is inherently a more feminine quality, not necessarily in terms of gender, but in the context of feminine/masculine energy - both of which we all hold to some capacity. In many cultures around the world, the sun is associated with more masculine energy and the moon with femininity. The sun (masculinity) is about doing, executing, rational logic, directness, harshness. The moon (femininity) is about being soft, intuitive, gentle, nurturing, and emotionally attuned. We need and carry each of these energies, yet the feminine side, the sensitivity, tends to be shamed. Perhaps it feels safer to favor the masculine, to keep pushing, going, grinding, because slowing down would require us to sit with the challenging emotions that will inevitably come up when we do slow down.
Perhaps it’s not the sensitive, empathetic one that is broken, but the society that told them they’re broken in the first place for feeling what is true and real.
The world needs your sensitivity, your softness. It really does. Sensitivity isn’t something to block out or numb, it’s something to honor and work with. Silencing your sensitivity is like putting a translucent curtain between yourself and the world around you, blocking you from your innate ability to see and feel things directly, at a level of depth that others can’t. To feel deeply is not a weakness, but a trademark of being truly alive.
The practice is not to run from our sensitivity but to be in relationship to it. Here are 8 tangible practices that are nurturing for people who are highly sensitive:
8 practices for sensitive souls
Spend intentional, quality time alone. It’s said that 70% of Highly Sensitive People consider themselves to be introverts, in that they recharge by being alone. Even if it’s just ten minutes a day, carve out daily time to exist in solitude to gauge what’s happening in your internal world, when you’re not picking up on others’.
Pour your emotions into art. Write, paint, dance, make music - release the idea that it needs to be ‘good,’ whatever that means. Let it just be about the process of creating, of having art be a channel for your emotions to be poured into.
Identify and honor your needs and limits. It’s not uncommon for sensitive people to be people pleasers as a means of early self-protection, learning to appease others as a way to prevent conflict.
When you’re feeling an emotion, simply name what it is. This is anger. This is worry.
Be conscious of what/how much you consume. Whether it’s the people you surround yourself with, the books, shows, music that you engage in, take note of how these different sources affect you.
Lean into daily comfort and romance, and find rituals/routines that nurture you. Maybe that’s lighting a candle at the end of the workday, breathing deeply or chanting for a few minutes upon waking, giving yourself an oil massage before bed. Tap into rituals that bring you warmth.
Connect with the elements. Whether you live in a city or in the woods, there’s no hierarchy of nature and we can connect to nature wherever we are. Tracking the moon phases, going outside first thing in the morning, sitting and breathing under a tree on your lunch break - to cultivate a relationship with nature is to cultivate a relationship with yourself.
Above all, practice awareness. Be a witness to your inner experience, as if you were observing your thoughts, sensations, interactions from a few feet away. Awareness is the greatest tool that’s available to us, and it’s always here, right now. As sensitive people, we can easily absorb and carry other people’s emotions without even realizing it. When you find yourself taken over by a wave of heaviness, ask yourself, is this mine or someone else’s?
Instead of journaling prompts this week, I invite you to choose a practice from above and integrate it into your week, in a way that feels accessible to you. May you honor your sensitivity and see that it’s not a weakness, but a gift, a gateway to experiencing your humanity fully.
Thank you for being here, exactly as you are.
With warmth,
Meg