1 EVERY 5 HUMANS IS A HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSON.
HIGH-SENSITIVITY TRAITS
Are you a member of the group of humans (one in five) that is “wired” as a Highly Sensitivity person?
This trait results from four temperamental characteristics: deeper processing, higher perceptual acuity, higher levels of interoception, and higher emotional intensity. A fifth capacity, is also common; empathy.
These traits, well managed, make you feel appreciated for your ability to think strategically, see more connections, analyze things deeply, and be attuned to others.
Many HSPs, however, do not have this experience. They feel they are living with the instruction manual for a different person, compared to the 80% of the population that has different wiring and needs. When HSPs do not know how to address their needs and way of being in the world, they flounder.
In my practice we work together to get you the right set of instructions, customized to your particular situation, and we help you manage these gifts so they remain a gift and not a liability. This can impact, favourably or not so favourably, your personal life, family, career and general well-being.
DEEPER SENSORY PROCESSING
HSP’s engage in deep sensory processing, which involves a more engaged and intense analysis of information (e.g. sensations, images, thinking, associations etc.). Higher levels of processing correlate with more brain activity and activity in different parts of the brain than lower levels of processing. We process more, so we think more.
PERCEPTUAL ACUITY
Perceptual acuity is the psychological and mental preparedness to “see around corners” and spot potentially significant anomalies, contradictions, and oddities in our external landscape before others do. HSPs are the first to notice the new hair-cut in others, that the air-conditioning went off, or what has changed in the environment.
HIGHER INTEROCEPTION
Interoception is the feeling of being aware of what is happening in your body. This sense makes the experience of body sensations more intense. The pain threshold may feel lower, because we notice pain more, or we may notice textures of clothes more intensely. For some, even the effect of medications can be sensed more intensely, or the impact of emotions on the body.
HIGHER EMOTIONAL INTENSITY
Higher emotional intensity is an innate temperamental trait that involves feeling emotions in a more vivid and profound way than most people do. You feel the same emotions, both positive and negative emotions, in the higher section of the normal scale. Thus, emotions like pain, distress, despair, fear, excitement, love, sadness or happiness may have a bigger impact on your experience.
EMPATHY
Many individuals also experience high levels of awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people, or empathy. Empathy consists of ‘feeling with’ that person.
HSPs have very efficient mirror neurons (specialized cells). According to the American Psychological Association, mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action or when we witness someone else perform the same action. They are neurological circuits that help to communicate with other members of the pack, especially our care-takers.
Combined with depth of processing, perceptual acuity, and our capacity for interoception, they make us very good at sensing the internal states of others.
Let me help you make your life more manageable and enjoyable.