What is well-being for a highly sensitive person?
- It means optimal level of arousal – that wonderful state where we are most fully ourselves, at ease, and living into our gifts as HSPs.
- It means not being overwhelmed, overstimulated, or overaroused.
- It means much less stress and anxiety.
And what about well-being when we are underaroused? That slippery slope into boredom, loneliness, and even depression…
What does well-being mean for underarousal?
- It means optimal level of arousal – that wonderful state where we are most fully ourselves, at ease, and living into our gifts as HSPs.
- It means feeling energy, even mood, engaged in the world, able.
- It means much less depression.
Sleep and pain are both significantly impacted by our more reactive brains. What does that mean for you and me, your average HSP on the street?
Conventional wisdom isn’t quite enough. Traditional interventions don’t quite work.
Sleep is ultra important to our brains and also can be challenging.
- We might feel claustrophobic and ultra-sensitive to some sleep interventions. (CPap, mouth taping, medications, for example)
- Sleep is more relevant and more important for us, so the pronouncement of “not enough sleep” might not come soon enough.
- “Not enough sleep” can have more serious implications for HSPs.
Similarly, our report of Pain can be impacted by a reactive brain.
- Do HSPs feel more Pain and thus over-report, or
- Do we analyze and process what the pain means so much that we under-report?
- With Pain, as with Sleep – traditional interventions impact us differently. (Meds, acupuncture, RICE, etc.)
Let’s take the traditional knowledge, advice, and interventions and tip them sideways (not upside down) so they fit our unique brains and our unique lives.
I know you have found your own hacks. I look forward to all of us sharing what works as I share my studies of research and the unique needs of highly sensitive people.
When we hack sleep, our brains THRIVE.
And, we all need to be ready with our pain hacks so we can also THRIVE.