Have you ever felt like something is wrong with you?
Have you ever felt like nobody (except for maybe 5 people you know from the Internet) understands you?
Have you found yourself again and again cancelling plans on short notice, because you just had no energy to be around people when the time came to leave the house?
Well, news is, you might not be that weird after all.
Highly sensitive people have a way more delicate apparatus of perception than others and need a lot of time to draw back, recharge and relax.
They make up 15 – 20% of the population, so it’s not so unlikely that you’re just functioning a bit differently.
Here are 10 traits that are very common for HSP’s:
1. You’re very easily overwhelmed by external stimuli
A crowded marketplace, a supermarket, a circus, action movies in the theater, everything that has loads of sound, smell, lights and mostly, humans, is very exhausting for you. When you come home after having attended one of the above or similar, you want to lie down in a calm space and just let the buzz fade.
2. Nature is amazing
A tree dancing in the wind, a squirrel jumping from tree to tree or a stray cat cuddling against your ankle touches you deep inside – in a way that seems confusing for most people because they don’t understand how you can be so captured by something they perceive to be so unspectacular.
3. Art is heart-wrenching
It might be music that gives you goosebumps all the time – or even makes you cry. It might be Paintings or poetry – but there is something about pieces of art. You can feel the emotion that made the artist create the piece to your bone – and it shakes you , all across time and space, just as much as it did shake them when they created it.
4. Warrior of Justice
Injustice hurts you, even when you are not the victim. Maybe you step in for people in need, maybe you feel a strong pull to stand with minority groups who still face marginalization, or you became a vegetarian because you feel so strongly with the animals in the food industry. Highly sensitive people feel a great pull towards making things right for everyone.
5. You need meaning
Whenever you do something for a living that seems to be counterproductive to making the world a better place, it hurts you to waste your time like that. You want to change the world, you want to understand what you are doing, you want to understand why things are happening the way they are – and it’s hard for you to accept things to be the way they are ‚just because‘.
6. Your thinking is faster than light
Ok to be honest, everyone’s thinking is faster than light, but I like the metaphor. But you probably know what I mean – you know what someone is going to say before they even open their mouth. You have the solution to many problems right at hand when they arise – and you hold yourself back from bursting out with it because experience has shown you that people need a while to ponder at a problem before they’re ready to be presented with a solution (that because they analyze differently than you and they need more time to come to the same conclusion. When you come up with it right away, it’s hard for them to believe you put enough thought into it).
7. You can’t decide for one thing
Some people call it multi-passionate, others call it Scanner-personality. HSP’s often try all the sports during childhood + youth, all the instruments, all the art forms, all the sciences. Everything seems to bore you after a while and you can’t stop yourself from being called to discover new worlds of skill and knowledge. You probably have been told more than once to keep your focus on one thing from people around you.
8. You put everyone else first
HSP’s have a strong tendency towards altruism, and thus, tend to run themselves dry while helping everybody else first. As much as we care for others and encourage everyone to be kind to themselves, it seems almost impossible to attend to ourselves in that manner.
9. You’re an empath
You can feel the emotions of the people around you. Sometimes even to the extend where you have to draw back prom a person or a group of people because the vibe is too agitated and you can feel all the emotions as strongly as if they were your own. This makes you a great helper and healer, because your intuitively know what the other one needs.
10. You hate small talk
Somewhere along g the line, you learned how to do it, but it feels crazy shallow and pretentious. Areal conversation has to be deep, pondering, metaphysical, philosophical, vulnerable and authentic. Who cares about the weather?
So there you have it, 10 traits most HSP’s share.
High sensitivity has a range in intensity, so you might have all of these apply to you but still not be a 100% HSP, or none of these apply but still, you have a tendency. This post is designed to give you an idea of what might hint to being an HSP.
I’m not a doctor, and I’m not here to cure anything.
HSP is not a disease or sickness, it’s more like a personal disposition. If you are part of the 20%, you have amazing things to offer to yourself and to society – you have gifts that the most people don’t share.
Do you feel like this applies to you?
leave a comment below or head right over to our facebook group and join the conversation with other Introverts and HSP’s!
Much Love,
Louella
