I’m conducting my own personal introvert revolution over here. I am a get-r-done, high-energy perfectionist and I sometimes go go go and then I tend to crash. As a highly sensitive person, I should know my limits. The issue seems to be living within them in a better way.
I can’t handle too much of any one stimuli or I physically start to rebel. I have been noticing more and more that when I listen to my body and spirit telling me to take a break, I am far more resilient and happy if I listen.
I am easily overwhelmed by things like bright light, noise, extreme temperature, or violent TV and movies. Sometimes there’s so much to process that I need to incubate in a slower environment for awhile, and that is ok with me. Carving out the time to let this happen proactively is the difference I’m trying to make. That way I don’t have to back out of things at the last minute.
Stillness print available here
Sometimes these subtle nuances are there to remind us to take care of ourselves. Last week, my edges were especially frayed and so I let myself cancel phone calls and meetings, curl up and take a nap one day, not follow my usual schedule. The shift was immediate. There’s a physical basis to this as well. I learned from reading The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide: Essential Skills for Living Well in an Overstimulating World (Step-By-Step Guides)
Being your own caregiver is a huge lesson for most of us. We are so good at looking after everyone else, but often we don’t know how to give ourselves a break. I am doing an experiment with myself. I’m trying to plan my day around my intuitive needs and where I am in my physical hormonal cycle, and generally trying to simplify where possible. Today we have some A/C repairmen banging around in the attic and also a sick child at home with me, but to make it easier, I’ve got some soothing music playing and am sitting somewhere very comfortable.
Going forward, I am going to plan my outings into noisy or crowded environments carefully, with built-in breaks or in limited quantities. I am no longer going to feel that there is something wrong with me that I can’t handle something. I’d rather meet you for a quiet chat over tea than come to your birthday party.
Instead of feeling like an odd duck, it dawned on me that maybe being this tender is a strength. Isn’t this the very quality that helps me sense other’s vulnerabilities and moods, connect to my own and others’ feelings, truly see what others sometimes miss, let alone be creative and intuitive and artistic? I can’t do this if I’m tired or hungry or exhausted. I can only tune in to these traits when I take care of myself. It’s almost like I have to guard this special quality and not let it get too overwhelmed that it runs and hides.
“The highly sensitive person has an important mission, which is to serve as a balance to the more aggressive behavior of some of the non-HSPs who advocate a less than nurturing policy toward humans, animals, and Mother Nature.” (This is not intended to be a slight against “non-HSPs.”)
So others can go to the large gatherings and the crowded restaurants, the baseball games and the concerts. I will go only when I know I can handle it, when I “can anchor myself to a ship of tranquility, [when I] won’t be tossed about by the waves of stimulation.” And when I don’t think I can, I’ll know I’m not missing out because I am protecting something special.
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