The World Of Highly Sensitive People

A sensitive person has his or her own language: the language of feelings. It is a very intimate and perceptive language, in which the heart is always tense and vulnerable. Nevertheless, highly sensitive people know very well that vulnerability can be an exceptional gift. It’s like a mental muscle that’s incredibly powerful, but it can also be dangerous. To minimize the risks, they have a powerful tool at their disposal: emotional intelligence.

A highly sensitive person is always there, hidden and even completely absorbed in the human landscape. At the same time, we all know that it is not easy to live in a world that requires that we are all the same, that we react in the same way, that we see reality through the same lens… As if we all have the same leaflet and speak the same emotional language .

For highly sensitive people, the daily routine often takes the form of a hedgehog’s back or the prickly stem of a rose. Everything hurts a little more and is, at the same time, more exciting. This can be weird for someone unfamiliar with this type of sensitivity. We’re talking about the kind of disrespectful and oblivious person who would say without thinking ‘you’re just taking everything way too seriously. You have to get a little harder, act a little normal.’

But how? According to certain texts, such as the text by Dr. Ted Zeff in his book Survival Guide for Highly Sensitive Persons , highly sensitive people have a hypersensitive nervous system. Also, some areas of their brains function at a higher intensity. This is especially true of the insula and other brain regions related to empathy and emotional reactivity.

It is not possible to be ‘a little louder’ if you have brains that are tuned to the world via a different frequency. No one can be something they are not, nor can we turn the volume down on our own emotions when they overwhelm us. We can’t control our emotions when our soul speaks to us, and reality suddenly reveals incredible hues that only we can see.

Highly sensitive people and the high volume of their environment

Many of us do have a friend or acquaintance who we lovingly say is “sensitive,” that you can “look at him, but you can’t touch him.” Its refined sense of smell or touch attracts our attention. There are certain fabrics that he cannot wear because they are uncomfortable, itchy, or give him allergic reactions.

Sometimes a simple squeeze or a slightly louder sound can cause him intense pain. Highly sensitive people are the people who go to parties and gatherings but end up hiding in the corner, wishing they had stayed at home.

According to Judith Orloff, psychiatrist, and author of Emotional Freedom , the threshold of sensory perception is different in highly sensitive people. In fact, each stimulus is multiplied by 50. However, this does not mean that everything is painful. This delicate perceptive and emotional threshold has the ability to very intensely attune to the beauty of life. Most of us completely miss this type of beauty.

Calling high sensitivity a gift is therefore not a mistake. It is true, however, that it is important for highly sensitive people to know how to control and properly filter the stimuli they receive. When they are able to successfully use a protective shield to protect their self-confidence and emotional integrity in their environment, they can achieve an exceptional level of emotional maturity.

Highly sensitive people are the people who notice the uniqueness of the details, who find fulfillment in silence and moments of wholesome solitude. In these quiet moments, any activity (especially artistic activity) becomes exciting. Like a synesthetic explosion of sensations, pleasure, and subtle emotions that is difficult to explain to those who are not in the 20% of the population who are highly sensitive.

The highly sensitive man and his world of silence

Alex stayed for a little coffee with his sister after work. He tells her that he has had a knot in his stomach all day and feels very exhausted. His boss had made a number of comments about his job as a sales director, minor points of criticism that Alex couldn’t handle well. In fact, they influenced him so much that his colleagues laughed at him all day long. And that while he was already known in the office as the ‘drama queen’.

This simple example shapes a reality that many highly sensitive men face. In reality, high sensitivity is not something that only applies to women. Half of the highly sensitive population is male, and suffers greatly from the pressures of a society that has still not accepted the sensitive male. Our culture leaves no room for men who let their emotions run wild, who can’t handle criticism, who cry easily, who like individual sports more than team sports, and who feel an intense empathy for those around them.

Despite the fact that high sensitivity is now a well-known subject, there are many people who still don’t dare to admit it. They watch, silently, without drawing attention to themselves and from a safe distance to avoid getting hurt. We know that each of them is surviving in their own way in a world full of sharp edges. But respect and the principle of ‘live and let live’ should be important in all our lives so that each of us can achieve true personal fulfillment.