This blog was inspired by what my wife was reading recently about “Highly Sensitive Persons”. I decided to write about HSP because in the past I have seen this abbreviation to also mean “High Sense Perception”. In fact in more scientific literature, the latter is the preferred term.
I believe that being more aware of your surroundings does not have to mean that you have to be overwhelmed or controlled by them. The meaning you ascribe to “Highly Sensitive Person” and “High Sense Perception” does not necessarily have to be the same as what is “officially” written and can take on a more positive or negative meaning depending on your perspective.
This article aims to help you understand this whilst also helping you to not get in a paradigm that keeps you stuck.
“Highly Sensitive Person”
This is generally the meaning you will find when you search for HSP on a typical search engine, and it was supposedly developed by the psychologist Elaine Aron.
Depending on what studies you read, estimates say that between 10-30% of people are highly sensitive people.
Typically it is explained that highly sensitive people will be more aware of subtleties in the information that comes to them and that they process that information more deeply than most people.
By “information” I mean being more aware of the emotions that come up in their bodies in response to internal and external experiences, more aware of thoughts that also come up, more aware of physical sensations in their bodies such as pain, inflammation, itching etc, more aware of the types of light hitting their eyes, more aware of how fabrics, chemicals and food affect their body, more aware of how EMFs from electronics equipment affect them, more aware of how written words in books or in poems affect them, more aware of how they feel around other people and in certain homes, buildings and other places etc etc and of course this can also mean that they are more aware of the spiritual world too.
This does not necessarily mean that a highly sensitive person knows that they are more sensitive than others, nor that they can put it into words what they are experiencing. It is often something that they might come to the conclusion of later in life, through experience and self-inquiry. Of course some people might not call themselves a highly sensitive person when they become aware that they sense things more deeply than others, and may instead say that they have “high sense perception” which I will talk about later.
Because highly sensitive people are more aware of all this information coming to them, it can often mean that they can be overwhelmed easily, become tired quickly, feel overworked, be affected by and often feel victim to others even if those others aren’t actually tying to attack them! They can often feel misunderstood by those that cannot sense the same as them either. This can be due to others not feeling as affected by an emotion, or not understanding the ideas and concepts the highly sensitive person can often come up with.
This means that highly sensitive people can end up not socialising as often as others or even become a bit of a hermit. Though they can often find comfort in grouping together with other highly sensitive people, their reactions to that around them can even mean not wanting to be around other highly sensitive people too much either! Loneliness and hiding away from others in some way is therefore a common trait.
This does not mean that all highly sensitive people are introverts however. Some can be very extroverted though even the extroverts can often need time to rest and regenerate.
The good side of being a Highly Sensitive Person
Being aware of more information coming to you means that you are able to see a bigger picture and also be able to see ideas and solutions to things that others wouldn’t spot. It also means that you are more empathic and are able to see ways of being more harmonious with others.
This means that highly sensitive people are often highly gifted in one way or another. It could mean that they are artistic, musical, an inventor, an entrepreneur, or able to solve issues, invent and bring ideas to a great number of professions and situations in life.
Often the gifts depend on the focus the person is choosing as well as what may be present in the cellular memory and energy field.
If the focus is on spirituality, then the highly sensitive person may have great abilities outside of the physical world, such as astral travel, sensing auras, healing, connecting with other beings and so on.
Typical identifying traits of a Highly Sensitive Person
This list is not exhaustive, and not all traits may be present in all individuals.
- You’re seen as insightful and perceptive by others as you pick up things others miss.
- You may be seen as wise, even as a child.
- You are moved by beauty, such as art, wind in the trees, music, a fine meal.
- You always try your best – It does not mean you don’t make mistakes but you always put in effort to do things well and right according to your beliefs.
- You may not be inclined to work hard however and stray away from work that is not ethical, beneficial or right for you and the world in your eyes.
- Positive words really lift you up and negative words like criticism often crush you more than with others.
- You really feel affected by conflict and disagreement especially in close relationships, which may mean you try to avoid it if possible.
- You get more affected by stimulants such as alcohol or caffeine as your nervous system is typically already more stimulated than others.
- Your mood is affected by what and whether or not you’ve eaten. Anger can come up if there is not enough sugar in your blood for example
- You are misunderstood and can be labelled as “weird”, “oversensitive”, “anxious”, “shy”, “moody” or that something is wrong with you in some way.
- You are sensitive to your environment – going to a new location can be uplifting if better than what you are used to or suffocating if worse.
- Change can be upsetting – it can be just as uncomfortable and joyous when getting a better job, for example and you need more time to adjust to change than others.
- Your spiritual world and experiences are alive – you sense beyond what others do and interact with those other realities.
- Your inner world is alive and rich – you have lots of day-dreams, even vivid dreams, get lost in thought and build things in your mind.
- Your pain tolerance in lower – due to your ability to feel the physical body more than others.
- What you wear matters – you may not like certain fabrics on your skin. You may also be very sensitive to what colours or shapes of clothing you wear on different days without any logical explanation.
- Loud and sudden noises can startle you.
- You are a seeker in life – you love asking questions and seek the answer to why things are the way they, love to explore what else if possible beyond what is already known and even whether what is know really is true or not.
- You think deeply and reflect a lot on your experiences.
- You are prone to overthinking which if turned negatively can result in anxiety and hypochondria for example.
- You are startled easily, by someone sneaking up you on for example.
- You withdraw from others and over-stimulating environments often to recharge.
- You feel pressured with time limits more than others, such as in exams or with dead-lines for work.
- You often feel drained and exhausted by tuning into and absorbing other people’s emotional issues, even without directly talking to others about their issues – being around them is enough.
- You cannot stand for cruelty & violence to others, including animals. Even hearing about such things or watching movies about them is uncomfortable.
Sensitivity is a continuum rather than there being only one or the other. Everyone will be different and will display different traits above and to different degrees depending on their circumstances.
Other labels that may be given to Highly Sensitive People
Depending on what is read about or who is seen during a consultation and of course what exactly a person may be more sensitive to or not, other labels may be given to that person such as having “Sensory Processing Sensitivity”.
“Environmental Sensitivity” for example may be given to someone who only has issues with their environment rather than people, films, literature etc. It could be issues with EMFs, particular buildings or places or things found in nature such as pollen or cat hairs.
It may not be that you have sensitivities to all that has been listed above and as such you may not consider yourself or be considered to be a highly sensitive person.
Other types of Highly Sensitive People
It is common to be very sensitive to one or a few stimuli without really fitting into the description of a highly sensitive person as described above.
A lot of people who are sensitive to something, developed that sensitivity later in life rather than feeling that they have always been sensitive.
Examples of developed sensitive traits include those who have gone through, physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual traumatic experiences.
For example someone who is acutely aware of how food affects them (which may be expressed as changes in mood, energy levels, food intolerences and allergies for example) may have gone through food poisoning, been exposed to various nutrient imbalances and/or toxins in their life. This sensitivity may have also started with a mental, emotional or spiritual trauma as well as, or as an alternative to the negative experience with food and toxins.
Someone who is very sensitive to other’s moods and feels drained by them, may be due to an emotional trauma earlier in their life and they have taken on a habit of not being able to digest other’s emotions yet, hence feeling drained when around others and their emotional issues.
It is also very possible that a person who isn’t highly sensitive to start with, can develop higher sensitivities through curiosity and practice rather than trauma. Depending on the practice, the teachings they follow and thus how they learn to process the extra information they sense, they can develop negative and/or positive experiences of higher sense perception.
Just because someone is highly sensitive to one or a few things doesn’t necessarily mean that they are aware of all things to a higher degree. Often if someone has gone through trauma and not yet learned to process their trauma and by extension other energies, information or stimuli, then they can be trapped in a negative story and find it hard to see how to get out.
Those who feel they start off life as a highly sensitive person and especially those that tend to instead label themselves as a highly aware person, tend to be more curious, ask questions and thus find solutions to such problems more easily. Not necessarily straight away, but certainly over years as they continue to grow and explore.
Causes of a Highly Sensitive Person
You will find all sorts of explanations depending on where you read.
In more “accepted” circles, they say that it is partly due to the genes you inherit from your parents and partly due to upbringing. This may of course include such traumas as mentioned above but also what is taught to you.
Those who know me well know that I would say that genetics is not as the establishment would like you to believe. It is changeable and as changeable as people believe it is. While for most it changes very slowly, knowing it changes and taking effort to think and act like the person you wish to be, will slowly change your genetics to match that new thinking and behaving.
Genetics is also not just physical. The blueprint you could say is actually in the ether, which is why genes can revert back to their original configuration after they are damaged or altered. Not many people know that and it will be very hard for you to find evidence of such in the established sciences unfortunately! I say this however so that people do not get stuck thinking that they cannot change their situation and continue to play the victim in their life. Perhaps a subject for another blog in future.
Looking from a more spiritual perspective or if you like a higher perspective, we choose what bodies we come into and thus what families, genes and likely scenarios we will encounter before we come here. Some of us even choose to remember to a smaller or greater extent our other lives.
So, people often choose how much awareness they will have before coming here depending on the reasons they wish to be here. Especially if you have had many lives outside of Earth where you were more aware and/or you came here with the intention of being a “star-seed” to help change this place for the better, you will more likely retain a higher level of awareness despite the veil of forgetfulness that we agree to when coming here. If on top of that you choose to incarnate into a family that is already more aware then that can make your awareness even stronger.
There are other possible reasons that can make you more sensitive including agreements with other beings etc but that gets more complex to explain and isn’t of any benefit to understanding this subject.
High Sense Perception
Being more aware of the information coming to you does not necessarily mean that you will become overwhelmed, need rest and regular separation from others. It all depends on how you view and therefore process the information coming to you.
Often when people use the word “sensitive” it can often take on a negative meaning. Sometimes people see it as meaning being more aware of something, whereas with others it can mean being more affected by, influenced or even manipulated and controlled by something.
This is why I typically would use the term “highly sensitive person” more when referring to someone who is highly aware of and more easily affected by the people, things and situations around them and use the term “high sense perception” when referring to someone who is just as highly aware of that around them but is more stable in maintaining their vibrational field and thus their emotions, thoughts, feelings etc.
There is more however. A highly sensitive person isn’t necessarily aware of more spiritual energies and realities. They may be aware of and sensitive to things others can sense to a deeper degree but that doesn’t mean that they have tapped into energies and realities beyond what we tend to label as 3rd density reality. It all depends on where those people invest their focus.
So, I also tend to say that those who have developed abilities in being able to astral travel, remote view, sense the aura, use energy healing methods, tap into the akashic records, have telekinetic ability, have precognitive ability etc etc are “high sense perception” people.
So as you can see there are two distinct reasons I might use the term “high sense perception”.
In this article I will not be going into the different abilities and senses a high sense perception person may have in the spiritual world and instead will be focusing on how they may respond to this reality differently to others.
Why the distinction between “Highly Sensitive Person” and “High Sense Perception”?
Of course what meaning you prescribe to these words is up to you, but why would I choose to use these different terms in different situations and for different people?
Basically I use these different terms partly to give an idea of what information they are able to tap into but also more importantly to make a distinction between how different people respond to the information and stimuli coming to them. This can be very helpful when teaching people how to have more ease with their path in life.
I have treated and /or given advice to a lot of people over the years I have been a healer (over 10 years as a full-time energy healer now!). One of the key concepts that I constantly teach is how to interact with the energies that come to people.
Have you ever noticed how some people thrive in certain situations whereas others feel overwhelmed? I know that some people absolutely love being a car salesperson who only get paid according to the amount of cars they sell. That is not exactly the environment I would enjoy!
The only difference between people who would enjoy that and those that don’t, is their beliefs about and thus the way they interact with the information in the form of thoughts, emotions, physical sensations etc coming up within themselves and coming from others.
The same goes for spiritual energies when you become aware of them. Your beliefs about them will dictate whether you experience being influenced, controlled or even being a victim of them, versus being able to choose who and what you wish to be and what you wish to do regardless of what you are experiencing.
Learning to have a better relationship with the thoughts, emotions and other sensation you experience in life
It usually takes a lot of practice to be able to always choose what benefits you and the path you wish to take in life regardless of the thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and spiritual experiences you are having, but it can be done. Like anything that is worth learning, it does take consistent and regular practice.
The key thing is to understand that emotions, thoughts, physical sensations and spiritual energies are just different forms of information. Some of that information is valid. Some of that information is useful for acting on, to prevent an issue that would occur or to further help you follow your true desires. Most information coming to a lot of people is useless, not valid and can take us down a path we don’t wish to go down however.
A high sense perception person, I would say, may be able to sense just as deeply or even more deeply than a highly sensitive person, depending on their experiences and training of course.
The thoughts, emotions and physical sensations for example, may be no less intense for the high sense perception person but because they know that it is just information they are receiving about their situation rather than necessarily something that they have to continue to worry about, fight, resist or react to (versus relaxing into, evaluating whether valid, useful and thus whether or not to take action or not about it), those uncomfortable senses don’t hang around for very long.
If they are not fighting/resisting/reacting as much, this means that they are using less energy in that situation. This is the main reason highly sensitive people often need to take time out to rest and recuperate and feel so drained when around others – it takes a lot of energy to maintain resistance of this reality!
For those people who have practiced enough, experiencing fear for example can highlight something that if changed can lead to greater prospects. This is in contrast to people who typically would allow that fear to dictate an automatic, habitual or learned response that keeps them in a victim state to fear.
As you can see, the difference has a lot to do with how you RELATE to the thoughts, emotions, physical and spiritual information coming to you.
There is a lot more I can say about this subject and tools you can use to help you learn to better relate to the information coming to you but that is beyond the scope of this post. You can find more information about this in my other posts such as the last post I made on this blog concerning where thoughts and voices come from and how you can respond to them.
Creating a safe space
A lot of us are already on the path to learning to have better relationships with our thoughts, emotions and so on. Unless you have reached a high level already (in which case why would you be reading this!?) we’re generally not perfect and even those who have practiced a lot in this reality still have times when they get overwhelmed and need space and time to re-energise. Yes, I am definitely one of those people!
This is why I often too give out advice on creating a safe space at home, as well as giving advice for making it easier when around others and in places away from home.
Such advise can include crystals and harmonising devices for home and for you to be able to wear, to better maintain your energy levels and be more resilient to other and things around you.
Intermediate techniques to help whilst on the path to allowance of all energies, such as protective aura methods for example can be useful, even if I do ultimately prefer people to face being able to drop all barriers.
Nature is a wonderful healer and I will always advise getting into nature as much as possible and grounding in nature. This is why many highly sensitive people spend a lot of time in nature. This is especially the case if the home environment isn’t ideal in some way.
Having your home, even if it’s only your bedroom, be harmonised such that you can re-energise yourself easily there, is generally a very important part of being able to function better in this world as a more awakened person. Learning to set boundaries with others and listening to your body so that you don’t get so overwhelmed and take the time out to regenerate are important skills to learn especially initially.
Again much of this advice is beyond the scope of this article but you can find plenty of my other blog articles and youtube videos covering this sort of subject, and you are welcome to book a session with me to get more personal advice.
Summary
As you can see from this article, there are lots of opinions out there about what HSP means and if and how someone might be affected by it. Like many things when using human languages, individuals can have very different perspectives on what a word means and may choose to label themselves based on those perspectives.
There is nothing right or wrong with calling yourself a highly sensitive person, person with high sense perception, or any of the other possible labels there are for people who are able to perceive more.
You might find in different situations that people may understand who or what you are and how you may be experiencing something better by using alternate labels. Thus they may respond to you, be able to help or connect with you better with that different label.
This article was mainly written to help you not pigeon yourself into one category or another and to help you not fall into being the victim of external influences. You can learn to process information coming to you better, so that you do not feel overwhelmed or controlled by it and thus have more ease with other people/beings/things in this world.
If you feel you are more aware of your surroundings and internal on-goings than others and this article resonates with you, then you are more than welcome to have a session with me to teach you some techniques you can practice to give you more ease in life. Many of these techniques take time with consistent and regular practice, and I can help give you encouragement with them. I can also help you with things you can buy or make to mitigate many of the overwhelming effects of life.
You can book an appointment here: www.grantpodesta.com/booking and of course you can email me if you have any questions about working with me.
