Today, I’m sharing my experience as a highly sensitive person!
This won’t be a detailed story of my life–though if you’re looking for that (and the full role my sensitivity played in my growth) you can find that here.
Instead, this post aims to break down how my parenting impacted me, and my general experiences as an HSP kid, teen, and adult.
It’s my hope that you’ll either identify with some of my experiences, and/or see what’s possible when you learn and embrace your sensitivity.
Without further ado, here is my highly sensitive experience!
Parenting impacts
Like we touched on in a previous post, high sensitivity is genetic. So if you’re highly sensitive, odds are someone in your family is too.
In my case it was my mom, which was incredibly fortunate for me. The research has also shown that highly sensitive people are typically great parents because they’re able to tune into what their kids need pretty easily.
This was very true in my case. My dad was also a good parent, but my mom’s sensitivity allowed her to recognize when I needed something more unique than most kids. And since I was also highly sensitive, those unique needs came up a lot.
She was able to meet those needs for me when I was young, then teach mean how to meet my own needs as I got older.
It’s also worth noting that the HSP research has shown that HSPs are more heavily impacted by their parenting than non-HSPs. This is true for both good and bad parenting. In my case, this meant that my healthy childhood led to a pretty healthy, thriving adult.
As a kid/teen
It can be easy to get caught up in the emotional portion of being an HSP, but I want to talk about the sensory aspects first. For me, this has been one of the stronger indicators of my sensitivity.
When I was a baby, I had such a strong reaction to loud noises that my parents got my hearing checked because my response was so extreme they thought there was something wrong. There wasn’t.
From the time I was old enough to decorate my own room, I opted for lamps instead of the overhead light because it was too bright for me.
I also can’t take crowded environments for long stretches of time without feeling overstimulated and overwhelmed.
These are just a few examples, but on the whole, my sensitivity to lights, sounds, and crowds were some of the earliest and clearest indicators that my nervous system was more sensitive than average.
As far as the emotional aspect goes, I was definitely more impacted by my feelings than my peers. I cried much more easily compared to other kids my age, and I took a lot to heart.
This was something I learned to regulate as I got older, so while I still feel very deeply, I don’t cry as easily or as often as I did when I was younger.
In a lot of ways, I had a very supportive childhood. I’m so lucky that my mom trusted her sensitivity enough to let me be me. She never pushed me to go to dances, live at college, or do anything that I didn’t want to do or knew would make me miserable.
I was grateful for this then, but even more so as I’ve gotten older.
But at the same time, I still lived in a world that wasn’t built with my sensitivity in mind. And I still received a lot of messaging that there was something wrong with me for not liking or not wanting to do certain activities.
I was pretty good at sticking to my guns, but I definitely didn’t feel “in my power” as an HSP until I was an adult.
As an adult
I didn’t find out I was highly sensitive until I was an adult, but once I did, my world made so much more sense!
It empowered me to say no to things like overstimulating parties and environments that are too much for me. It also helped me have more faith and trust in my intuition and emotional insights, and more deeply accept that my needs are more unique than the average person. And that’s okay.
But before I learned I was a highly sensitive person, I sold and published my first book in my mid-twenties. It was exciting, but it was also way too much for me to handle without having the proper tools.
I go into the details of this situation in my story post, but the bottom line is this experience was too much of a good thing. It activated my nervous system to the extreme, and it basically stayed in that heightened state for two solid years.
I was overstimulated and overwhelmed and it was driving me to a level of anxiety I had never experienced before. Because I didn’t have the tools or understanding of my sensitivity, I couldn’t recognize it or help myself.
As I came down from my publishing experience, I stumbled into information on intuition and highly sensitive people, which really paved the way for me to create a life that suites my sensitivity.
I work from home, run errands in the middle of the day when stores are less crowded, avoid the loud crowded environments that I hate, and generally modify my life to meet my sensitivity.
I also built this business around my sensitivity by embracing my intuition and sensitive gifts!
Embracing my sensitivity has allowed me to create a happy, thriving life. I wanted to share my story so other HSPs can know what’s possible if you lean into your gifts instead of fighting them.
Want to unlock your unique highly sensitive gifts? Consider a tarot reading!
My favorite thing about reading tarot for others is that it’s this magical place we’re both of our intuitions meet. As a reader, I use my intuition to tell you what messages I see in the cards. As a client, you use your intuition to decide how this ties into your life.
The goal here isn’t to dictate your future. It’s to help you better understand how you can create the life you want to create. You can also gain clarity and insights about any given situation.
I’ve also found tarot to be incredibly helpful in creating a life that’s in line with my highly sensitive needs.
You can then take the information from your tarot reading and apply it to your life however your intuition tells you to. You are never bound by anything that comes up in a tarot reading. If your intuition tells you something is not right for you right now, it’s likely a message that will be more relevant in the future.
As a whole, the experience will help you heighten and enhance your intuition and allow you to tap into one of the best parts of your highly sensitive self.
Here are 7 ways a tarot reading can help Highly Sensitive People.
Foreshadow Intuitive Tarot offers a Guidance for Highly Sensitive People Reading designed to give you the guidance and empowerment you need to embrace your highly sensitive gifts and live your life with confidence!
This reading can be customized to meet you where your at in your highly sensitive journey. It can also be structured to help you gain the insights and guidance you need as you navigate your unique experience.
For more on my Tarot philosophy, you can can check out the About page.
If you’d like to know even more about me, my own highly sensitive experience, and how tarot supported me, you can read my story here.
Are you a highly sensitive person? What aspects of this experience have you embraced? Which have you struggled with? Tell me about it in the comments!
