Sensitivity | SacredGroundSomatics

About Sensitivity

Sensitive people feel things deeply.

We take in more information than most - on a physical, social, and emotional level.

We see the world in a clear and nuanced way, but we can also feel

overwhelmed & like we don't quite belong.

Do any of these sound familiar?

I sense what's happening within people and groups, even if it's not being said
I can find interacting with people exhausting, even if I'm enjoying myself
My body and emotions can feel deeply influenced by my surroundings
I sometimes struggle to feel belonging

If yes, you might just be

a sensitive soul.

Sensitivity is often misunderstood.

Let's start with clarifying what it isn't and is.

Sensitivity is not...

...being delicate, weak, or fragile

In fact, many sensitive folks appear extra-strong, extra-capable, because they've spent their lives trying to compensate for what they've often been subtly or overtly told is a defect (sadly, this is especially true in our distinctly numbed and numbing culture.) Additionally, because sensitivity is frequently associated with difficult experiences in early life, sensitive folks are often incredibly resilient, having faced great challenges in order to make it this far.

...a specific personality type

Just like the rest of nature, sensitivity comes in a range of expressions. Some sensitive folks are shy, have difficulty expressing emotions, and struggle with feeling extraordinarily tender in most situations. But other sensitives are outgoing, relish lots of activity, and might identify as extroverted. Some experience a combination of all these things. The common thread is experiencing ourselves and the world more intensely.

Sensitivity is...

...a nervous system orientation

All nervous systems - mine, yours, the neighborhood cat's - are built to help us sense and respond appropriately to what's happening, both inside us and around us. Sensitivity is another word for a highly-tuned nervous system, one that is able to pick up nuanced aspects of inner & outer experience. This type of nervous system can develop for two basic reasons: nature and nurture.

Research suggests that some of us are born with nervous systems tuned to take in more information than most people (nature). Early life circumstances that are challenging, chaotic, misattuned, or oppressive - whether in home, school, or culture - can also cause the nervous system to function at a higher level of awareness from a young age (nurture). However nature and nurture combine for us, understanding our deep capacity for feeling as being rooted in the biology of the nervous system can be immensely clarifying & empowering.

...much-needed medicine

Sensitive people feel with precision and acuity. This is something which can often be overwhelming, but it is also a powerful, uncommon, and much-needed way of seeing the world.

It's no secret that much of the pain on this earth - personal, interpersonal, and planetary - is a result of numbed-out people making tragically disconnected decisions. In all our valiant efforts to quell our personal & collective pain, we forget that at the heart of all healing is the capacity to feel. It is very hard to harm, oppress, or degrade someone or something if you can truly feel their essence.

This is where sensitive people come in. We feel the essence of things deeply. Even when our sensitivity has caused us to numb ourselves in order to survive, the core of our experience is this clear-eyed seeing. We have the capacity to see, understand, and respond to the world at a deep, heartfelt level. This is vital medicine for all layers of life on this earth - our own, our human community's, and the rich tapestry of wild creatures & lands that surround us.

Sensitivity goes by many names:

Highly sensitive person

Intuitive

Empath

Spiritually sensitive person

Sensory processing sensitivity

Sensitive nervous system

...and the list goes on. I use the broad term "sensitive"

to include all these expressions and more.

Sensitive folks often have a few

particular gifts and challenges in common.

Gifts

high creativity
intuition
spiritual connection (experienced & expressed in many different ways)
great appreciation of beauty
ability to listen deeply
can often sense the 'heart of a matter' (in relationships, situations, ideas, etc.)
deep connection to nature & non-human animals (or desire to feel connected to them)
authenticity (often follow a unique life path)

Challenges

anxiety, exhaustion, & overwhelm
general sensitivity to stimuli (lights, sounds, etc.)
chronic bodily tension
swinging between frantic activity & collapse/withdrawal from activity
feeling energetically invaded by others
feeling unsafe/like you don't quite belong
somatized symptoms (inner distress that shows up as physical symptoms, acute or chronic)
idiopathic illness (illness without an identifiable cause)

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Mindful embodiment

can be particularly powerful

for sensitive people.

We're usually not aware of it, but every emotion has a physical correlate in the body. This means that we express (and often carry long-term) emotional pain & difficulty in our body. This is especially true for sensitive people, whose nervous systems absorb more stimuli.

Because sensitive people feel things more acutely, working with the source of feeling itself - the body - goes to the heart of sensitive experience. We don't think our way into sensitivity; the feeling-tone is unconsciously set by how our body experiences the world.

Using body-based approaches to process experience (instead of only processing it in our heads) lets our whole physiology know that we're listening, that it's safe to relax. Understanding how our body is trying to get our attention & learning to communicate with it is a profound source of self-understanding & healing.

For sensitive souls,

befriending the body

is a transformative act.

About Bridgett