You’re too sensitive. Am I too sensitive?

A short guide for those people tarred with this brush and now believe it.

First off, sensitivity is not over-reactivity. One exists as supported by the other, but they can be often exclusive of one another.

I can be sensitive and not over-react. I can also over-react and not display as sensitive.

Point is, sensitivity is a valuable trait that is often used as a mis-label of over-reaction.

Sensitivity is the ability to experience sensory data at a high volume or large depth. It’s a trait many people struggle with, due to the lack of wisdom around it.

Below is a primer with enough to get you fully comprehending your own sensitivity, without the shame and bullshit.

“YOU’RE TOO SENSITIVE”

This is the classic beratement launched toward many whom display a quick and deeply affecting response to someone saying something to them which is received in a manner perceived as offensive or hurtful to them.

This does not mean the one calling you “too sensitive” said or didn’t say, anything hurtful prior. However, it does mean you as the receiver felt something that hit a nerve; whether the critique of the original speaker’s verbal choices toward you was, or was not intended to harm, or simply delivered with little awareness.

Truth be told, the “you’re too sensitive” statement is more times than not, delivered in a way that is not articulating the real critique amount to, “you’re reacting toward me as if I’ve said something that really hit a nerve”.

Regardless of the critique, the person in the reactor’s seat, is the one being perceived as “too sensitive”. It’s a semantics issue.

If you feel something deeply, yes, you are sensitive.

If you react violently, you are reacting intensely, which can be labeled by others as “over reacting”.

This is an early stage of sensitivity where the sensitivity and the reaction are not dialed in as functional. When they are not dialed in, everything is easy to take personally and you can often experience life as if you are seen as crazy or at least feel like you might be.

And of course, sometimes people can be pricks and that’s enough to piss anyone off; but the point of this article is to come at this from a lens of extreme self-responsibility, so no matter whether you are dealing with a well-meaning friend who is simply thoughtless on occasion, or Joffrey from GoT, you’ll always have a way to manage your own experience in a functional way.

FUNCTIONAL SENSITIVITY

To get to a place where your sensitivity is functional, there’s a few things to get the hang of:

1. You’re being used as a mirror – abstract or direct – when someone verbally attacks you
   

   Eventually having the internal, emotional knowing that people acting out toward you is all about their own problems in life, and you’re simply reminding them of something they’re not entirely aware has nothing to do with you.

   1. This can take time to get the hang of, but until you do, it helps that after an argument, you try to analyze “what other things could they have gone through to act this way?” – not to go back to them with, but simply to help you let go of responsibility for whatever they projected onto you.

2. Your Sensitivity is a gift that opens up many more gifts and skills

   Like any gift that opens a skill-tree – yes, just like in the video games – needs to be constantly trained and given attention to bring to a level of mastery. Sensitivity at a high level open you up to be able to intuit some wildly unique things, including empathing, psychic reading and even communication with animals.

   For some of you, I realize this can sound far-fetched, so how do you validate this? I would urge you seek out psychic development classes and practice circles. You’ll found out in one session where your gifts are at, and you’ll get to meet people who know what they’re doing and can guide you through clear processes how to do this work. Obviously, I am one such resource for this.

   1. Sensitivity can be honed through un-judged witnessing of your own emotional experience. Meaning, if I become angry, I don’t attack myself for it; rather I sit with it and let it play out, like experiencing a flavor or hearing a sound. Instead of trying to get it over and done with, sitting with it – excluding judgment – can increase your ability to sense it in others.
   2. METAPHYSICS MATH
      Emotional Awareness = Deeper Sensitivity = Greater ‘Psychic’ Awareness in your surroundings

3. Your Sensitivity brings challenges

   This is not a path for the faint of heart, despite how you feel you’ve been painted by others. Feeling everything deeply in a world that’s absolutely inside-out, back-to-front, wrought with violence and polarization… it’s not easy.

   For your own sanity, it helps to give yourself space from chaotic environments and pace yourself. Learn ’embodiment practices’ such as somatic healing, embodied movement practices like yoga, dancing etc and my own Litmus technique.

   Eventually, you’ll adjust your system’s threshold, your nervous system will increase its ability of how much intensity – and varieties of intensity – that it can be present in, and you’ll gain resilience over time.

   1. My favorites resources for Central Nervous System education include:
      A – https://www.instagram.com/the.holistic.psychologist/
      B – www.nicabm.com/

4. The Whole Point of this…

   You’re not a mess, or damaged, or weak, or faulty; sensitivity is a gift, and a powerful one that can give you a rich life and an advantage over those who lack it.

   Your ability to sense deeply and articulate what you feel can enrich your ability to connect to many types of people, and forms of nature, including animals. You can even develop abilities to sense what people need and how they need it (again, something I teach).

   Your ability to manage your reaction is about your awareness of your nervous system and improving that relationship. Mainstream knowledge, schools and so on don’t cover this. I wanted to make sure through the power of search engines that people who went through the same stuff I did could find this. If you found it, and you want more assistance, feel free to message me through the form on this site.