A Highly Sensitive Person's Life
When you feel joy, discomfort, emotions, and empathy intensely
A few years ago, I was standing in my kitchen and I faintly smelled something. Something bad. I said to Jim, “Do you smell that?” He says no.
Now I’m on a mission. “I swear I smell something bad. Where the heck is that coming from?” I mumbled to myself.
If you are anything like me, you know what came next. I searched every single corner of the kitchen looking for this smell. [Read more…]
It gets really hot in New York in the summer. 90 degrees isn’t unusual. When I lived and worked in Westchester County, just outside NYC, my coworkers always seemed to want to eat lunch in the courtyard outside our workplace. Even when it was like 90 degrees and humid.
most people think this looks like a pleasant lunch. it looks like bug bites, sunburn, and sweat to me.
Their reasoning was that since they were stuck inside all day, lunch was their one time to escape and be outside. I understand that, but I also didn’t want to sweat in my nice work clothes when an air conditioned building was right next to me. Does. not. compute.
I remember once opening the door to the outdoor patio at work and it felt like air from a furnace hit me in the face. “You guys, it is really hot outside… are you sure you don’t want to eat inside with the A/C?” came my whiny plea. No, they inexplicably just HAD to be outside. Even though we were suffering the entire time.
I enjoy traveling, but it isn’t without its challenges as an HSP. Here are a list of the essentials (and, well, not-so-essentials) that will help make your trip much more comfortable and enjoyable. [Read more…]
Yesterday, my husband and I booked an apartment for a month in Chiang Mai, a city in Northern Thailand. My goal while being here is to pretty much work on my laptop all day, so we aren’t really here for sightseeing.
So….we spent most of the day riding around on a scooter, scoping out places to stay.
One of my requirements is that the apartment not be a studio. I need my quiet time and my space, so a studio would drive me nuts because it would mean we’d be in the same room all day. Most couples would be fine in a studio for the short period of a month, but not me. I simply need my own space for my sanity. So that meant our options were more limited and more expensive. I wish I didn’t feel this way, but I’ve learned that I have to accept it and accommodate it.
We finally found a place and it seemed just fine.
Then night time rolled around and we soon discovered that right next door, there is an outdoor karaoke bar.
Until ONE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING on a WEEKDAY, we could clearly hear loud singing and music, even with our windows shut and the a/c on.
Storytime. Several years ago, I kept getting this feeling like my heart was skipping a beat, or that it was beating double occasionally. I had lots of tests done, and it was determined that I have mitral valve prolapse (MVP), a really common heart disease-but no big deal in my case. The bigger news was that my doctor told me to try avoiding caffeine to see what would happen.
So I stopped drinking soda and coffee (I didn’t drink much to begin with), and like flipping a switch, the heart fluttering STOPPED. I was amazed.
In the video below, Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory explains in detail why he must sit in a specific seat in his living room.
Quote: “In the winter, that seat is close enough to the radiator to remain warm, but not so close to cause perspiration. In this summer, it’s directly in the path of a cross breeze by opening windows near and there. It faces the television at an angle that is neither direct or discouraging conversation, to so far wide as to create a parallax distortion. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.”
Sheldon is a genius, but it could be said that he has a number of personality disorders! He is very particular, and has thoroughly thought through and formed an opinion on pretty much every topic imaginable. But-just for fun-how is he like an HSP? Here are more Sheldon traits:
However, he is very unlike an HSP in the emotional department. Many HSPs feel emotions deeply and are affected by the emotions of others, which is totally unlike Sheldon, who cannot pick up on social cues at all.
Who else on TV do you think displays HSP characteristics?
A bus screeched to a stop in front of me as I waited to cross the street.
I grimaced and instinctively covered my ears.
I turned to my husband Jim and asked, “didn’t that sound hurt your ears?” No, he says. “Ugh,” I said. “It literally HURT my ears.”
A few days later, we are walking down the street and a car goes by and breaks the silece with a loud horn HONNNNK! I involuntarily let out a small yelp. And jumped a little bit. [Read more…]
When I was a little girl, maybe 5 years old, I visited my aunt’s house for a family get-together. She lived next to a small pond. There were lots of family members there, and all of us kids spent most of our time standing and sitting on a giant wooden raft that floated around the little pond. [Read more…]
Simply learning about what it means to be an HSP can change the way you see yourself and your place within the world.
