Prior to reading Elaine Aron’s book, “The Highly Sensitive Person,” which introduces the concept of high sensitivity as a personality trait found in roughly 15-20% of the population, I had always believed that I was an empath, intuitively sensing and often feeling the emotions and physical symptoms of others.
This book profoundly changed my self-understanding. For once, I had scientific insight and a bit of ancestral wisdom to explain why I always felt different – and now I use this understanding to leverage power over my world, instead of feeling overwhelmed by it, and I hope this article offers all of the “aha!” moments you need to make a positive change in your life, too.
What’s the difference?
While high sensitivity and empathy are traits that overlap, an empath takes the experience a step further. Empaths are not only highly sensitive to others’ emotions but also tend to absorb these emotions, experiencing them as if they were their own. On the other hand, in her book, Aron suggests that “in most cases, sensitivity is inherited”. I personally found that understanding high sensitivity as an inherited trait helped validate my experiences so that I could embrace my sensitivity as a natural and integral part of who I am, rather than viewing it as a flaw or weakness.
Key Traits:
HSPs are empathetic and deeply moved by others’ emotions, but they do not necessarily internalize these feelings. Empaths, on the other hand, often absorb and experience others’ emotions as their own.
HSPs have a broad sensitivity to various stimuli, including sensory input and emotional cues. Empaths specifically excel in emotional sensitivity, often feeling the emotional and energetic states of others acutely.
Both HSPs and empaths need to manage overstimulation, but empaths may require more rigorous boundaries and solitude to manage the emotions they absorb from others.
HSPs process sensory information deeply and are highly attuned to subtleties in their environment. Empaths focus predominantly on emotional and energetic information, often prioritizing emotional connections over sensory details.
Sensitivity only serves the individual if he or she is in the minority.
The Highly Sensitive Person
Understanding Sensitivity Deeply
Sensitivity, or responsivity as biologists have called it, “involves paying more attention to details than others do, then using that knowledge to make better predictions in the future.“
D is for Depth of Processing
Aron teaches us that the foundation of the high sensitivity trait lies in the tendency to process information more deeply. “HSPs simply process everything more, relating and comparing what they notice to their past experience with other similar things.” She references the research done by Bianca Acevedo, which suggests that there is more brain activation in HSPs than others in an area called the insula, a part of the brain that integrates moment-to-moment knowledge of inner states and emotions, bodily position, and outer events. This area is known to many as the seat of consciousness, explored in another book I highly recommend, The Seat of the Soul.
O is for Overstimulation
This may come as no surprise, but HSPs are easily stressed by overstimulation. However, high sensitivity is not mainly about being distressed by high levels of stimuli.
E is for Emotional Reactivity
E is also for empathy! The mirror neuron area of the brain of HSPs helps us to determine the intentions and feelings of others. Though many may believe that emotions cause us to think illogically, scientific research is now considering emotion to be the seat of wisdom, and one reason for this, the book explains, is that most emotion is felt after an event, which helps us to remember things that happen so that we may learn from it.
S is for Sensing the Subtle
Again, the brain areas that are more active when sensitive people perceive are those that do the more complex processings of sensory information. As an HSP, it’s important to recognize that our awareness of subtleties is useful in an infinite number of ways, from simple life pleasures to strategizing a response based on our awareness of others’ nonverbal cues about their mood or trustworthiness.
Embrace Being YOU!
Elaine Aron reminds us that “when we are visible, the most obvious thing others observe is that we “over”-react compared to others”. This is often the O of being overstimulated and the E of stronger emotional reactions. But since we are the minority, of course we are not reacting as most people do, often making it seem to ourselves and others that we have a flaw.
Understanding whether you are an HSP or an empath can significantly impact how you approach self-care and interpersonal relationships. Aron’s book emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and creating environments that accommodate high sensitivity. For HSPs, this might include managing sensory input, setting boundaries, and practicing mindfulness.
Unless people have some emotional reason to learn something, they do not learn it very well at all.
The Highly Sensitive Person
Even though high sensitivity is often misunderstood and undervalued in a world that prizes resilience and stoicism, I prefer to look at high sensitivity as a superpower, rather than a flaw. It’s what’s going on inside, out of sight, that most clearly sorts the highly sensitive minority from others, and our profound ability to empathize allows us to be exceptionally attentive and nurturing deep thinkers who excel at making well-considered, thoughtful decisions. Our strong ethical grounding makes us reliable and trustworthy individuals who carry the torch of integrity and ethicality in society.
When grounded in our strengths, we become keen listeners who promote conflict resolution and cooperative teamwork. So celebrate your sensitivity and transform it into a source of power and resilience. You got this!
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Joelle Hedgepeth is a senior technical writer, content and UX designer. She is the creator of Indigenous Skin, a wellness company for women, and digital lifestyle editorial, The-Musings.com.
