highly sensitive people
Explore, learn, and grow in the light of your sensitivity
What is High Sensitivity?
Are you confused by the idea of "highly sensitive people" or looking to learn more about it? You're in the right place!
Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is commonly refers to those with Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS - the term used in scientific research).
HSPs have nervous systems that process sensory stimuli more deeply and react more intensely than average. However, responses to the same stimuli can vary significantly between individuals.
Sensitivity is a natural trait that exists alongside other personal characteristics, and understanding it can help us navigate life more effectively.
Unsure if you have sensory processing sensitivity? Use the self-test on SensitivityResearch to explore more. For a more comprehensive result, the SPS-Q Monitor is a good option (available in multiple languages).
Why Do We Care About This Stuff?
Why do we talk about high sensitivity in The Haven?
What inspired me to go from writing about music, songwriting, and creativity to high sensitivity and the nervous system? How the heck did that happen?
I share more in this video...
The HSP Owner's Guide
Do you ever wish an instruction manual existed for your (or other people's) highly sensitive temperament?
The pace, values, and pressures of modern life can feel out of step with the natural rhythms and needs of highly sensitive people. As an HSP, you process information deeply and absorb subtleties others filter out. Without space and time for it, this depth of processing can lead to a more significant impact from overstimulation.
What if you had a guide to help you understand and work with your sensitivity, rather than feeling overwhelmed?
The Highly Sensitive Person's Owner's Guides aim to provide that.
Drawing on scientific research, anecdotal evidence, and more than a decade of working with highly sensitive people, these guides are informative, practical, and supportive, no matter where you are in your relationship with your sensitivity.
Maybe, you don't identify as a highly sensitive person yourself, but you would like to understand more about the trait because you have HSPs in your life. This is a great way to do that.
The two Highly Sensitive Person’s Owner’s Guides are resources to help you align your mind and body with the elements of life that matter most to you.
Part One: Understanding High Sensitivity
Discover the unique traits of a highly sensitive temperament and learn why you may experience certain aspects of life with greater intensity.
Part Two: Understanding Other Parts of Yourself In Light of Your High Sensitivity
Explore how your sensitivity interacts with other traits—both innate and learned. This guide includes prompts to help you recognise and work with your strengths, limitations, preferences, beliefs, and values in light of your heightened sensitivity.
Sign Up To Receive The HSP Owner's Guides
Drop your email address below to receive these two free short guides (or if you are a Haven Member, you can login to access them):
The HSP Owner's Guide (Dive Deeper Articles)
These posts unpack and elaborate on elements of the HSP Owner's Guides. I will be adding more over time.
Rewriting Our Story Through The Lens of Sensitivity
One of the first things I instinctively did when I understood myself through the lens of high sensitivity was to go through a creative writing process...
It can even be a fun, humourous, and playful way to think about who we are in light of our sensitivities!
A Reframing Practice
You've read the articles, taken the tests, and watched the videos about high sensitivity. You recognise yourself in the descriptions. Now what? This is an important question to consider because it's easy to get stuck in knowledge-hoarding or even regrets and wishes that you'd learned about it earlier in life.
That's why I recommend taking a creative approach to embracing and integrating your sensitivity to collaborate with it (rather than fight against it) as you write the next chapter of your story.
The Gentle Rebel Book
The Gentle Rebel book was originally shared in 2014. I had written it as a way to creatively (and playfully) process life through the lens of high sensitivity.
I hope you find some encouragement from it to inspire you on your journey.
The Gentle Rebel Book (Companion Videos)
I revisited the book in 2018 when I re-shared it on The Haven. I made the following videos at the time. They focus on different senses and experiences through my highly sensitive nervous system, with a few practical nuggets and titbits along the way!
Sensitivity Archive
The full archive of articles, discussions, and resources to raise awareness and understanding of sensory processing sensitivity to help us proactively design life in partnership with our natural temperament.
The Challenges of Measuring High Sensitivity (with Andrew May)
What are the challenges when it comes to objectively measuring high sensitivity in people? In this week’s episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, I speak…
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A Book For Sensitive Children (with Judith Orloff)
In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast , I speak with psychiatrist and author Dr Judith Orloff about her new book, The Highly Sensitive…
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Awareness and Alertness: How the Soundtrack of Our Nervous System Shapes Our Reality
In the main episode this week, we explored the links between hypervigilance and high sensitivity. In this supplementary private podcast, we are digging deeper into…
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Hypervigilance and High Sensitivity (The HSP Owner’s Guide)
In this week’s episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we look at the relationship between sensory processing sensitivity and hypervigilance. As we finish our journey…
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Overstimulation and High Sensitivity (The HSP Owner’s Guide)
This post elaborates on the ‘overstimulation’ section of The HSP Owner’s Guide. In this week’s episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we look at the…
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Why Common Self-Help Concepts Might Not Work For Highly Sensitive People
In this week’s Gentle Rebel Podcast, I introduced a new project where I’ll be exploring the history of self-help . Where it came from, the…
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Moral Sensitivity (The HSP Owner’s Guide)
This post elaborates on the ‘moral sensitivity’ section of The HSP Owner’s Guide. Have you ever felt like you’re carrying the weight of the world’s…
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High Sensitivity: Real or Pseudo-Science?
We recently discussed in the Haven Café whether younger people seem more resistant to the idea of high sensitivity. Someone asked why this might be…
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Icebreakers and Social Sensitivity
“Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves with your name and something interesting about you”. Does that icebreaker moment fill you with joy? If…
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Social Sensitivity and The Highly Sensitive Person (The HSP Owner’s Guide)
Have you ever been in a room and sensed social dynamics beneath the surface before a word was spoken? Perhaps you’ve noticed (consciously or unconsciously)…
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