Am I Highly Sensitive?

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My Highly Sensitive Pup – Artwork: Helene Anne Fortin

How do you know if you are highly sensitive person (HSP)?  Usually I simply ask the question, “Are you highly sensitive?”  If a person answers “Yes!” immediately I strongly suspect they are.  If they hesitate and ask what it means to be “highly sensitive” then I would assume they are not or may be borderline.

But a note of caution here.  Often family/work/community might not value anyone who is highly sensitive.  And, as a result, we become desensitized (over time) in order to survive.  But deep down, the highly sensitive still resides within, and needs to be acknowledged and nurtured.

Highly Sensitives can be introverted or extroverted.  In fact, 30% of highly sensitives are extroverted.  They are split equally between male and female.  They tend to have four strong leanings according to Elaine Aron :

  1. they process everything more deeply.
  2. they are more readily affected by over-stimulation.
  3. they are emotionally sensitive.
  4. they are more affected by people’s moods and emotions.

The goal of this workshop (Creativity for Highly Sensitives) is to bring these important characteristics (with its super-hero status) to light.  And to help you own all of who you are. Once I accepted myself as an HSP I became a better portrait photographer.

Here’s a link to Elaine Aron’s highly sensitive quiz.  Answer truthfully (not from acquired patterns) to determine if you fit into this realm.  Link here.  (Please do not try any other quiz in the marketplace.) Elaine Aron, as a psychologist and researcher, has spent a lifetime developing and accrediting this work.  I trust what she knows.