Highly Sensitive People and Political Elections
Elections, particularly when political stakes are heightened, can feel challenging for highly sensitive people (HSPs). The depth of feeling and empathy that HSPs may engage with is both a strength and a challenge. While much of the advice on navigating these periods leans toward boundaries and self-care, many HSPs I speak to feel that merely “opting out” isn’t a good option for them. This is not about just surviving—it’s about engaging with our creative spirit in a sustainable, fulfilling, and purposeful way.
Why Are HSPs Affected by Politics?
As HSPs, political events often resonate with a force beyond casual concern. There are several reasons highly sensitive people may feel an intense impact of political elections:
The Fire in Your Belly
Many HSPs are motivated by deeply held values. The injustices we see on the political stage can have a personal flavour because they strike at the core of our values, such as human rights, destruction of the natural world, and social fairness. For many of us, this “fire” can be our creative wellspring, a source of stories, songs, and art to help us process, respond, and express ourselves in community with others. Both Barbra Wallace and I used this phrase (fire in the belly) as an essential part of our creative spirit in the Belonging issue of Coming To Our Senses.
The Mood of the Room
HSPs may have a heightened sense of the emotions of those around them. This can create a feeling of constant exposure to the collective tension that elections bring. It’s not just empathy—it’s an acute awareness of the social undercurrents in our environment. It can be exhausting when combined with a tendency towards over-responsibility for the wellbeing of those around us (“keeping the peace” and people-pleasing).
Information Overload
The deeper processing of a highly sensitive nervous system can lead to a rapid energy drain from the relentless flow of news and analysis, especially as we try to weigh perspectives, uncover biases, and sift through complex information. But instead of retreating completely, it’s about practising discernment. This means engaging with selective, trusted sources that give us perspective without overwhelming the senses. And avoiding sensationalist hype, populist, and ideological propaganda that comes through social media click-bait and YouTube channels motivated by audience capture.
BS Detector
Because of deeper processing, HSPs might question and see through rhetoric, spin, and deception characterising much surface-level political discourse. While this insight is helpful, it can feel exhausting to continuously sift through messaging and witness how others may be taken in by it.
Word Soup
Many HSPs find that we can struggle to find satisfying words when exploring and expressing our perspectives. This challenge is magnified when we feel observed or under pressure to “perform” in conversation. Anticipating conflict, we may imagine scenarios and brace ourselves, only to later realise that what we anticipated may have clouded our interactions, a kind of confirmation bias. And afterwards, the ruminating begins—replaying conversations, imagining what we could have said, and wishing we’d expressed ourselves differently. Recognising this tendency, we can use creative outlets to process these experiences instead of letting them remain a loop in our heads.
Engaging In Politics With a Highly Sensitive Nervous System
While self-care and energy protection matter, they are not the whole picture for highly sensitive people. Many of us are creatively galvanised by events, experiences, and situations that are also painful. But this pain isn’t necessarily or always a sign to avoid or mitigate its source; it’s a message we might process, carry, and share for the sake of our species. Avoiding or switching off can leave us feeling disconnected and like we cannot be fully ourselves. So, we can consider what healthy and constructive engagement looks, feels and sounds like to each of us.
Navigating election season with sensitivity and creative spirit starts by tuning into our bodies. In particular, it is essential to learn to recognise the states of our nervous system and how they feel when regulated and dysregulated—connected, activated, and retreating. This can help us use the different states to engage meaningfully and recognise the signs we are slipping into dysregulation so we don’t lose ourselves in the noise.
There are no blueprints or one-size-fits-all approaches. It’s an invitation to experiment and reflect. To notice what you notice and reshape patterns that make sense and feel good for you.
Connected: Feeling Grounded in Values
When in a state of connection, we embody calmness, safety, and groundedness. We can access our values with the capacity to reflect and process clearly. We can make good decisions, recognising what is within our sphere of influence and releasing what we can’t control.
From this place, we can engage without getting lost in the push-and-pull of others’ emotions or the noise of the world around us. We can develop practices to help us settle into this state, allowing our creative energy to flow from a place of stability. Returning to our breath, a short break outside, or a good belly laugh can bring our nervous system into connection.
Activated: Fuel For The Fire in a Highly Sensitive Belly
In the sympathetic state, we feel the energy that compels us to take action, whether it’s having meaningful conversations, creating art, or writing to express our thoughts. Activating this fire can be energising rather than overwhelming when we keep one foot in a state of safety and connection. This balanced activation allows us to channel the energy into something positive and sustainable.
Instead of becoming consumed by it, this state also helps us access and engage with humour and playfulness—a powerful combination that keeps our spirit light even when the stakes are high. Activating doesn’t have to mean arguing or convincing; it can mean showing up as ourselves, listening, and creating something meaningful from the experience.
But be mindful of triggers that can tip activation into dysregulation, leading to a reactive fight, flight or freeze response. When we lose the sense of connection, we may experience disconnection as either over-engagement (fueled by resentment or indignation) or avoidance. Staying in touch with the playful and creative parts of ourselves keeps our energy sizzling. This helps us avoid blowing up and burning out.
Withdrawn: Retreat and Rest
Withdrawal isn’t simply about hiding or detaching from what matters—it’s about taking deliberate pauses. Healthy withdrawal allows space for solitude, reflection, and a perspective-giving “breath”. It’s a pause in the noise. It helps our minds and nervous systems recalibrate, reconnect, and re-engage from a place of connection.
We must know when to pause, rest, and let go to create and sustain the necessary energy for positive action. Otherwise, we risk falling into dysregulated withdrawal.
Dorcas Cheng Tozen talked about how many social justice activists burn out because they aren’t encouraged to take this seriously. The average time-span of social justice engagement is reportedly low. Many people cannot sustain the fire in their bellies, instead losing touch with that part of themselves. For HSPs, if we are forced to meaningful parts of us off for self-protection, we can feel like we’re missing something.
Dysregulated withdrawal might look like going through the motions. It might feel like numbness or an emotional vacuum, and it might sound like cynicism or resignation. This can happen when we are overexposed to information that we don’t have sufficient space to process, or when the atmosphere feels overwhelmingly hostile to the nervous system, which, feeling like it has no choice but to escape it, enters a shut-down mode.
The Sensitive Counter-weight To Power
Ultimately, engaging in political moments as an HSP is about finding meaningful ways to balance our sensitive nervous system with our creative and social sensibilities. These practices aren’t about shielding ourselves from the world. Rather, they are about participating in ways that feel true to who we are. When we navigate these times with care and creativity, we’re not just managing the fire in our bellies but shaping it into something meaningful, resilient, and sustainable.
Not all HSPs share the same beliefs. But we are wired in a way that makes us a vital part of the collective. Our emotional responsiveness and empathy allow us to sift through surface-level narrative. Deep processing causes us to notice overlooked details and help repair the social fabric. Highly Sensitive People are necessary in recognising and countering forces driven by socially destructive domination, power and control.
