Our Challenges as Highly Sensitive People, By Julie Bjelland, LMFT
Life as a Highly Sensitive Person can be hard sometimes. I’ve spent a lot of time in my work talking about the positives of the trait, and I think that has been very important for us to identify the gifts of the trait. Understanding the positives helps us create a greater sense of acceptance and helps us through some of the challenges.
I went on a weekend trip that was a little too busy with not enough sleep. These factors can be a challenge for many of us as HSPs and often send us into a spiral of higher sensitivity and greater emotional response. When I got home, I felt thoroughly depleted and noticed that I felt a lot more sensitive and emotional. Does that sound familiar?
It was interesting to observe myself this time because after doing my own brain training, I have come to learn how to change my experience, so I recover much faster. My younger self would often go into a spiral of shame after I would inevitably be irritable, irrational, or overly sensitive or emotional about something. Then I would have a message playing in my head that something was wrong with me and that I was "too" sensitive. This usually sent me into what I call an HSP hole where my own self-judgment would magnify my already difficult experience, and recovery would often take days or sometimes even weeks! I know many of the HSPs I work with experience this in a similar way.
This time, I had tools that I had created and even a new neural route in my brain that could catch my negative thinking and self-judgment and start practicing more self-compassion and gentle, loving self-care. I recovered quickly and skipped the shame cycle. This sure feels much better!
I love studying the HSP brain and teaching how to grow these new neural sprouts that allow us to create this pause and reflect ability to avoid strong reactions. This allows us the time to use tools to get through whatever is hard at the moment and get back to our center as quickly as possible. Life is entirely different having this set of tools. You even start to trust yourself more and know that no matter what you are faced with from either overloaded sensory experiences or emotional ones you can get through it quickly and feel your best again. It makes the experience of being an HSP so much easier!
As a psychotherapist that specializes in the highly sensitive person, I have developed these tools especially for the HSP brain. My passion is to help the highly sensitive person live their best and thrive!
Find out how my brain-training program can help you live to your highest potential. hspcourse.com
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~Julie Bjelland is a psychotherapist, global HSP consultant, and leader in the field of high sensitivity and has helped thousands of highly sensitive people around the world. As an HSP herself, Julie understands what it is like to live with high sensitivity and strong emotions. Julie teaches an online course for HSPs and is the author of several books. www.juliebjelland.com.