How to find joy again as a Highly Sensitive Person
photo of me by Linfeng Li
Dear Highly Sensitive Person,
Picture this:
It's the last month of the year, it's getting colder by the day (that is if you live in the Northern Hemisphere), the holidays are coming fast, and you can't help feeling some pressure creeping up.
It dawns on you that the year is almost gone, and you didn't manage to achieve all the things you had planned to back in January.
You start thinking that there's still this month to make up for it, and that you must get it all done by the holidays, so you can relax then. You'll have deserved your holidays.
But then, the idea of spending hours and hours overindulging and stuck having to do mindless chit chat, feeling like you can't be really yourself because nobody understands you nor care anyway.
You start imagining all sorts of stratagems that will make you avoid the usual tedious family drama.
Without noticing, your body becomes tense, your shoulders raise to your ears, and your jaws tighten.
But then, you remember that it's the same every year, and that stressing about everything is not helping you.
So instead, you decide to approach December differently.
What if you were slowing down instead? What could that look like?
As you sit at your desk by the window, a soft, warm ray of light shines upon you, and warms you up.
You can't help but pause, close you eyes to feel the warmth of the sunshine even more on your skin, and smile.
Aaah… THAT feels good! Now that you think of it, you feel joyful, hopeful, and content to be here, right now. The rest seems much less important.
Sometimes I like to imagine our highly sensitive self as a cactus.
It is prickly and covered with thorns, yes, but did you see its wonderful, delicate blooms growing as if by magic, with almost no water?
Turns out its needles are adaptations to protect them from predator & they help the plant to retain water and stay cool
How wonderful nature is, isn’t it?!
How can you set aside your thorns for now and tend to your beautiful flowers?
How this thorny sensitivity of yours is in fact a strength and a healthy protection?
If you’d like some support in creating an empowered and inspired life, where your sensitivity is your secret weapon that helps you to thrive, I’d love to connect over a session.
Well, this was my reality last week…
When I find myself caught up on the hamster wheel, it's as if I'm depriving myself of feeling good now, all in the hope for a better future, according to who knows whom expectations.
It feels very depressing.
I now know that this is a cue to jump out of it immediately and go on a mini retreat with myself so that I can find joy again!
When I embrace joy, I feel a sort of yummy expansion in my body, like the soft, warm glow of a winter morning sunshine.
It's reassuring, it's gentle. It makes me feel at ease - protected, cared for. As if anything in that moment is possible.
I feel strong.
My inner beauty is enlightened. The light shines upon the bounty of my life, whatever that means to me at the present moment. Even if it’s just about little things.
When I embrace joy, I become an open vessel to the good and the beautiful of my circumstances, no matter what.
Creativity comes through me. Abundance comes through me. Just like this ray of sunlight through the window.
I trust things to be alright at the end, because I trust myself to be able to handle it, and to come up with solutions that are good for me.
If you're feeling stuck these days, and worrying about your goals, deadlines, family expectations, I invite you to pause, and reflect on how your thinking may be the actual culprit.
It's time to take a fresh look and seek new viewpoints on things.
Since we, Highly Sensitive People, have the ability to feel so much, why not turning this to our advantage, and feel with intensity all the goodness that is available to us (yes, despite all the things that are not going well)?
That is truly regenerative.
With loving joy,
Rim
