Highly sensitive professionals are likely to be one or both. It didn’t take me long to realize that working in the system wasn’t my sweet spot. I had lots of jobs in traditional “systems”. I was a sexually transmitted disease counselor in the department of public health and an airport shuttle driver. I was a temp in all kinds of offices to help pay for grad school (yuck!). Then, I worked in community mental health clinics and public schools as a therapist and school counselor.
Maybe you can relate to my story of being in systems and seeing how they needed to change. Sometimes I made change happen, but the people around me didn’t really appreciate it. I guess I wasn’t very graceful about it because I got too frustrated and impatient with the system. As an HSP, I saw everything that worked and more that didn’t. I lacked the patience to fit in, and when I tried, I became so overwhelmed that my performance suffered.
Solopreneur: A person who sets up and runs a business on their own. Is this my sweet spot? I sure thought it was. The truth is, as a highly sensitive person, I found this path equally challenging, but in many ways preferable. No getting around it, working in any environment has pitfalls for HSPs. So many balls in the air. Sensitive extroverts get lonely, and sensitive introverts struggle to keep marketing and to hire the support they need to keep it all running smoothly.
What is the trick? The trick, my sensitive friend, is to schedule enough time in whatever type of work you do to take breaks, vacations, naps, walks, retreats–to take care of YOU so you can pursue your work with fresh energy and self confidence.
Remember, you were supposed to be a shaman or inventor or philosopher or monk. Where is your shaman’s hut or your private lab? You know, the one you only wander out of to partake of the beautiful meal the community provides you because they recognize you are a Changemaker.
If your society isn’t recognizing you in that way, who is there to do it but yourself?
What is the solution? It’s unique for each of us. That’s why we love the HSProfessionals at Work Sensitivity Circles. When we gather together in a circle of community and support each other, we find the solutions. Every single one of us has a few. Wouldn’t you like to know what they are? I’ll share mine, and you will share yours, and together we will go from surviving to thriving.
Perhaps we’ll even soar.
I’m right here in the trenches with you. But I can see my hut in the woods next to a stream. It’s cozy and warm, full of my favorite books, and it has a Star Trek style synthesizer that creates all-organic, gourmet, healthy meals any time I ask.
Come join us so we call all do this together. Please send me an email describing your shaman’s hut. I’m dying to hear what it is.
