Highly sensitive people and overwhelm
How to cope with overwhelm as a sensitive person.
When you are a highly sensitive person, you tend to get overwhelmed, more so than non-sensitive people. Highly sensitive people tend to get overwhelmed or overstimulated because they “process more information from their environment and from within than others do”. Highly sensitive people can also have a hard time distinguishing others feelings from their own, because they feel a great deal of empathy.
Since overwhelm can be a challenge, it's important to take good care of yourself and have strategies to turn to when you're over stimulated.
Here are some helpful suggestions to deal with this:
1. Savor your downtime.
Often highly sensitive people benefit greatly from having open-ended alone time, It is important to take a break from your environment otherwise you will feel depleted. Your downtime might include taking a walk, journaling, coloring, listening to music or whatever it is that helps you unwind.
2. Practice the Pause.
Mental rest is very important to a person who is highly sensitive. Throughout the day make time to pause for 5 minutes and meditate, this is a great way to deal with to-do lists that are piling up or if you feel your environment is overstimulating.
3. Setting boundaries
The two biggest pitfalls that highly sensitive people fall into are not setting healthy personal boundaries, and saying yes when you really want to say no. This happens because highly sensitive people care deeply about others and they care how other people will react to them, unfortunately this is a huge contributor to overwhelm.
If you feel consistently overwhelmed in your life, or in certain situations, ask yourself: Am I doing too much? Am I taking responsibility for things that aren't really my problem? Am I getting my own needs met? And most importantly: is there anyone in my life who consistently fails to respect my boundaries?
Depending on the answer, that may mean it's time to learn how to set healthy boundaries, disconnect from toxic relationships, and start prioritizing your own needs.
For many highly sensitive people, overwhelm feels like just part of the deal. And it is something that every highly sensitive person deals with. But it doesn't have to be this way, it is possible to develop habits and techniques that keep it to a minimum or in many cases avoided entirely. When you do start to implement tips and techniques, then you start to live your best life!
If you find yourself getting overwhelmed in your day-to-day life and find it difficult to differentiate between your energy and others, my program From Worry to Wisdom can help you hugely. Learning techniques to minimize your discomfort, distinguishing your energy, and thought processes from others and implementing self-care and ways to nourish yourself in the process.
You can contact me at www.geraldineryancoaching.com