Let’s introspect for about 10 secs. What do you think about yourself and about your way of addressing emotions? Do you feel about the slightest matter in your life very deeply? Have you ever heard people say “Don’t take too much to your heart” or “Why are you thinking about it too much?” If you encounter these comments and are frequently encouraged to suppress your additional “emotions” (which is not reasonable), you can identify as a very sensitive person. Now let us delve deep into some of the major characteristics that are embodied by a highly sensitive person that make them distinct and special.
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1. Empathy:
Highly sensitive people tend to be highly empathetic. They mostly possess a very nuanced ability to understand and look out for others’ emotions, feelings, and behavioural changes. They tend to keep a check on every minute of emotional changes that others may exhibit. These people could turn out to be experts at conflict resolution and communication skills but may also tend to slip into being people-pleasing in certain situations.
2. They live in their heads:
They have active inner lives. These individuals possess high levels of self-awareness and are very unique and even highly creative beings. But this coin has a flip side too. They tend to overthink every slightest moment of their everyday life and overanalyze the reactions of individuals to the conversations made commonly. This can be a potential trigger to many of the mental breakdowns they may face and may make them feel uncomfortable. This can also turn them to be highly critical of themselves.
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3. Great sense of what is right or wrong:
A highly sensitive person clearly exhibits high levels of decency and civility and is sure of what is right or wrong for them. they are the clear champions of maintaining the ethics and integrity of their work. While these characteristics are vital, highly sensitive people can be quickly irritated by challenging coworkers who do not share the same characteristics or ideals.
4. High levels of intrinsic motivation:
Highly sensitive people tend to be mostly motivated by their intrinsic needs or their internal reasons. They mostly seek to fulfil their passions and tend to enjoy the work they take up to fulfil their actualization needs rather than for external motivations like money, power or status. For example- they may take up work not for the weight of their paycheck but for the satisfaction it may offer in their lives.
5. Stimuli oversensitivity:
Highly sensitive people, as the name suggests tend to get overloaded by the sensory stimuli they encounter in their everyday lives. this often results in sad outbursts of tears. They may experience amounts of stimuli that they may have no idea how to handle effectively.
6. Acute sense of perception:
HSPs have a keen sense of perception. They catch up on nuances in situations and notice even the smallest changes. In many situations, this attention to detail is advantageous. They acutely look into and are aware of other people’s slightest likes, and dislikes, this sensitivity may earn them friends and allies straight away. On the other hand, sometimes they may fail to execute this particularity or meticulousness in the right way and this may make them uncomfortable as they are not able to maintain perfection in attending to details.
Also Read: Psychology of Self-Perception
7. Preference for silent places:
Highly sensitive persons are often found to be not functioning at their best when they are placed in loud, noisy and bright scenarios. They mostly do not go well with open workplaces as well and they do not accommodate large amounts of lights, sounds, noises, colours, and music etc., Rather, they prefer to choose silent and normal-lit places to get their work done as they are highly comfortable and can function well without any sensory overstimulation.
8. Keen about deep conversations:
Small chat might set off the “this feels meaningless alarm in the highly sensitive individual. They may not be the ones one can approach in the hope of setting off a tiny conversation about the weather, their hobbies and whatnot. They find minimal or even negligent amounts of interest in such conversations and may feel more at ease discussing profound and significant things. These people can be the best to go to if one feels heavy at heart and wants to vent out their burdened feelings and emotions. They, with their keen interest in such deep and meaningful conversations, can also turn out to be great listeners.
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9. Exceptional solution seekers:
Following a talk, highly sensitive people may frequently withdraw and consider a topic. They are not “out of sight, out of mind individuals, and will continue to work intellectually on solving problems and coming up with solutions if a discussion does not totally address a question. Because it is difficult for HSPs to filter recollections of aspects of a discussion that may be troubling them, this can lead to rumination concerns. On the other hand, they will continue to think about issues that need to be addressed and will frequently come up with new ideas.
Even though highly sensitive people are mostly considered to be hard to comprehend as emotional individuals, they possess unique gifts that help them maintain the dynamics of the relationships they are a part of. These gifts are unfortunately rarely noticed but if they are identified and put to use effectively, they can help flourish beautiful relationships with their loved ones.
