Highly Sensitive vs. Too Emotional?
Common beliefs are that if someone is “highly sensitive”, chances are they are pretty emotional or attract drama into their lives. This misconception, and the subsequent comments and judgments, have led highly sensitive people to look on this trait as a weakness – something they need to change, and perhaps ought to be ashamed of.
Highly sensitive people tend to hide their sensitivity – not showing their true reactions to a person, situation, event, or even a thought. Because of this, they aren’t showing up authentically – aren’t playing fully in their lives. This presents obvious challenges…and Princesses want to show up authentically.
Many people who are drawn to personal growth, who crave personal development, have at least a bit of the super-sensitivity trait. We are very attuned to ourselves and how we are responding to the outside world as well as the inside world. But, because the cultural bias is toward suppressing this trait, we may mistakenly use personal growth opportunities and resources as a way to become less sensitive, rather than finding the value in the sensitivity and how we can use it to serve others as well as ourselves.
To put your mind at ease a bit, there is some evidence that super sensitivity may have a biological component. Some people have blue eyes, some have green. Some people are tall, others are short. And some people are very sensitive, and others are not. Thinking of it this way makes room for the possibility that being highly sensitive might actually be an advantage.
What are the advantages of being highly sensitive?
You are more tuned in to what is going on around you.
Highly sensitive people tend to be highly affected by their environment and the “energy” in the space or among people. This high susceptibility means you need to set up environments that support you. It ALSO means that you recognize what is happening in a situation before others do. This highly tuned sensitivity means you pick up on nuances – more quickly and more accurately. (More accurately because you are so well practiced at it.)
