Did You Grow Up Feeling Wrong?

Are you highly sensitive? I bet you are, and I imagine you have known it forever. I grew up hearing repeatedly that I was too (damn) sensitive. In fact, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t think there was something wrong with me because I was so different. 

Growing up feeling just wrong can take a toll on a person. But the good news is that we can heal those past experiences and find our way to a truly thriving, glorious life through a few simple brain hacks.

Whether you have known you were highly sensitive for years or are not even sure if you actually are, if the things I say resonate with you, you will really identify with the tools and information I share at Are You Highly Sensitive.

Maybe you are someone who struggles with anxiety regularly. You think you get a hold on it, and then it rears its annoying head again when you least expect it, or maybe you have gotten to the point of just expecting to feel anxious more days than not. You have tried therapy, even medication. You can hold it off for a bit, but always always, it comes back. That’s me, too.

It’s probably my number one driving motivation for trying to find and help every person on the planet who has this sensitive, reactive brain we share. We truly can redesign our lives in such a way that we can thrive. We can live better, and more importantly, we can help create a world where every sensitive being knows they are born with a gift…not a curse.  

Some highly sensitive people grow up in incredibly supportive families. They are honored for being children with very strong emotional responses and for taking lots of time to think things through. They cry or become frustrated easily, but their parents understand that they are simply communicating that things are a little overwhelming. So instead of being told to toughen up or hurry up, they are given space and time. The family adapts its schedule and pace to accommodate their exquisitely sensitive child. 

Look, it’s hard for busy families in our culture to raise their sensitive children with the right kind of nurturing support. The world is ever-changing, and until we “shifters” take over and create a new status quo (and many of us are giving it our best effort!) it will continue to become increasingly inhospitable to HSPs and especially highly sensitive children and youth. 

What makes it hard? Things are too fast, too technological, too loud, too bright, too violent, too self-centered, too in your face (think about the news outlets or politics.) You know, about 3/4 of humanity doesn’t think so? They enjoy or even crave the stimulation and information. It doesn’t even overwhelm the majority of them. 

Does that make us wrong or pathological? NO! Imagine if we didn’t exist. If our society, really the society of humanity, lacked thoughtful, emotional, empathic, noticers. We are the canaries in the coal mine. Shall we expire from the toxicity? Again, I say, No. We have to lift our wings and fly, to first save ourselves and then to create shifts in our world.