The Subtle Trap of Noticing The Small Things

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Highly sensitive people often notice small things that others overlook. But why?

Elaine Aron, who coined the term highly sensitive person to describe someone with sensory processing sensitivity, clarified that the trait isn’t about having extraordinary senses; it is about processing information we absorb through our senses more deeply.

This can be confusing, especially because the term highly sensitive may sound like superpower senses. But the trait of sensory processing sensitivity doesn’t give you super eyesight, dog-like hearing, or an extraordinary sense of smell, any more than anyone else.

If you are a highly sensitive person, you take in and process a lot of environmental and sensory data, including the smaller stuff others might filter out. When feeling calm or relaxed, this can make you especially attuned to unseen and unspoken elements of the world around you. But when stretched or stressed, it can lead to false inferences and interpretations about what you’ve noticed.

This is a big reason I believe HSPs are often drawn to creative (and gently rebellious) ways of engaging with the world. Noticing the small things helps us connect dots, notice patterns, and reveal what lies beneath the surface of everyday life.

In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we consider different ways we can use our sensitivity to subtleties in relationship with our creativity. Whether you have a deliberate creative practice or you just want to explore your sensitivity with more openness, playfulness, and curiosity.

Sensory Processing Sensitivity Is Not Caused By Better Sensory Organs

A sensitive brain unconsciously tracks stuff going on between the lines. It may, for example, notice a micro-hesitation before someone answers a question, vehicle vibrations, ambient hums and buzzes, the flickering fluorescent light, or changes in vocal tone.

These details can become sources of irritation or curiosity, especially once they reach your conscious awareness. While it might be impossible to filter out sources of sensory stimulation (like a flickering light, loud breathing, or the rumble of a distant vehicle), we have some control over how we engage with them or respond to them.

We can mitigate them by moving away or blocking them out when possible, or we can tune into them more intentionally.

Noticing Is Not The Same as Understanding

Another potential cause for confusion about high sensitivity is the belief that noticing more automatically equates to flawless perceptiveness and intuition. This is not the case. If we overestimate the accuracy of our interpretations, we may stop listening to verify them.

For example, if you notice someone grimace when you’re talking to them, you might jump to the conclusion that they didn’t like what you said. This may lead you to change your views, get defensive, and even resent them for their different opinion, even though you don’t really know what the grimace meant. It may turn out they were experiencing some back pain.

I’ve definitely made big decisions based on misreading small signals. We might be especially vulnerable to misreading when we are emotionally invested and already on high alert for signals of disapproval. I’ve changed things in songs I’ve written based on misread signs in response to early versions. I interpreted the eyebrow wriggle of joy as a furrow of disdain, and took out their favourite bit because I thought they hated it.

Our ability to interpret accurately is also compromised when we are overstimulated, tired, or in a chaotic environment. Our nervous system may start making rapid, unconscious associations based on sensory connections to past experiences.

Accuracy Requires Space

We just need to look at all the misunderstandings online to realise how easy it is to misinterpret someone’s intentions when we are overstimulated and rushing. This is true for all of us. But when we find space and time to regulate and restore ourselves in calm and supportive environments, it becomes a huge benefit for a highly sensitive nervous system.

It doesn’t take much to bring us back to our creative core. Where we can better connect with intuition and follow the possible patterns and paths we want to play with and explore.

Practising Creativity When You Notice All The Small Things

Practising creativity itself is regulating and restorative. But how can we engage with it in a meaningful way with what we notice? Especially when we’re feeling overstimulated by all the noise.

Intuitive – Follow the feeling

Turn what you notice into an abstract expression. Follow your instincts with colour, shape, texture or sound. You don’t need to explain what it means or make it look like anything in particular.

Try it with: A quick abstract drawing, a collage of colours and textures, or an improvised sound recording.

Exploratory – Collect the pieces

Treat the things you notice as fragments of a bigger picture. Gather details, impressions and observations. Arrange them, move them around, or see what happens when you bring them together.

Try it with: A collage, a collection of photographs, or a page of sketches and scraps.

Investigative – Take a closer look at the detail

Choose one object, detail or thread that catches your attention. Zoom in. Explore its shapes, textures, parts and peculiarities. Give yourself time to discover what you might have missed at first glance.

Try it with: A detailed drawing, a close-up photograph, or a piece of descriptive writing.

Subtractive – Play between the lines

Explore what happens when you remove, obscure or leave something out. Pay attention to the spaces between things, the silence between sounds, or the details that emerge when everything else falls away.

Try it with: A blackout poem, a minimalist photograph, or a field recording.

Translation – Give the atmosphere a form

Explore the mood of a space, moment or interaction. What feels present? What seems unspoken or difficult to see? Use colour, shape, texture or tone to give the atmosphere a form of its own.

Try it with: An abstract painting, a colour palette, or a short soundscape.

Relational – Make connections

Look for pathways between the things you notice. Compare their size, shape, distance, movement or qualities. How might two things that seem different be alike? How might two things that seem similar be different?

Try it with: A visual map, a series of paired photographs, or a drawing that connects seemingly unrelated objects.

Noticing The Small Things: A Creative Field Journal

As I was preparing for this episode, I ended up creating a Creative Field Journal to help me get started. It has prompts and questions to help us think about our relationship with sensing subtleties and the stories we tell about them. I hope it might give you something fun to explore and creative to play with. Access it for free here.

Down The Rabbit Hole of Noticing The Small Stuff (Private Members Podcast)

The main episode took me longer than expected to refine and record. In this private members-only episode, I wanted to talk about why I found this topic so difficult to explore. Click here if you are a member and need help accessing your personal feed.

The Haven (Private Podcast): (Protected Content)