10 Uniquely Rare Signs You're A 'Highly Sensitive Person'
You're someone who is very in tune with their emotions, and it's admirable.
Alena Ozerova | Canva Emotional intelligence is the quality of being able to "...recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately." So it should come as no surprise that if you're in tune with your emotions and sensitive not only to your emotional health or state but also to those around you, that you might be a "highly sensitive person." Highly sensitive people are those who have a greater awareness of emotions and feelings than other people and know how to accurately tap into these feelings and experience them.
Our vibrant blue-green planet is filled with beauty, trees, flowers, bees, creatures, and magic. When your mind settles, you’re able to listen to your body, your senses, and the stillness within. Why are you not in touch with this all the time? It's because you’ve gotten lost in the busy world of technology and rarely take the time to unplug from your computers and your mind. Why is it so hard to just sink into the space inside where you have access to your senses, your wisdom, and your presence? Unfortunately, being sensitive is not valued in this world, yet it’s certainly not uncommon in this world to feel "sensitive."
Being made to feel wrong for that, unfortunately, is not uncommon, either. Consequently, it’s far too common that you make yourself wrong for being sensitive. You need to not only normalize what it means to be sensitive but also start acknowledging its value. Being sensitive, intuitive, empathic, or perceptive are beautiful qualities that are a powerful and much-needed counterbalance in a world that has become desensitized to the basic needs of humanity.
Here are 10 uniquely rare signs you're a highly sensitive person:
1. You naturally check in with your body and your sensations
This is so you know what's going on around you and what course of action is best for you. You just know without having to understand why. Your body is your GPS and guides you through life. If it weren’t that other people want you to be more rational, you would confidently follow your inner knowing all the time.
2. You "feel" other people
If others don’t feel well, you can’t help but still want to do something about it. If they don’t feel good, it affects you and it’s hard for you. Any kind of discord moves through your body as if it is yours. For you to feel better, it sure helps when they feel better, right? There is another way to feel good even though others don’t.
3. Your feelings are deep and alive
You can’t just speak from your head and be rational, because that's not how you function. Your wisdom comes through the felt sense in your body and often surprises other people because it is so different from how they experience life. Your perspective easily makes them tilt their head. This is good! You just planted a seed. Don’t be surprised if they suddenly agree with you shortly.
4. You can tell what others are feeling and experiencing
Oftentimes without them even having to open their mouth. That makes it easier for you to meet them where they are at, and help them understand themselves better. This is a wonderful gift when you are a healer, therapist, coach, or teacher. People don’t just want mental understanding. They need someone to feel them, so they can get in touch with their feelings and senses. They need someone like you to reflect that to them in a loving safe way. They need to know that their feelings are valid and wise.
5. You easily get overwhelmed in bigger crowds and activities
When you feel other people, their energies, the energies in the room and all around, it’s a lot, isn’t it? It makes you feel drained or overwhelmed and you need time afterward to release it all and find yourself again. Avoiding bigger crowds or spending less time there, is a healthy alternative than letting your energy get sucked out of you.
6. You need a lot of time on your own
Either in nature or far away from the busy world. This is a very important and necessary characteristic of a highly sensitive person and turns out to be a sign of good self-care. It is not a sign of weakness, weirdness, or lack of social adjustment. It is your wisdom speaking to you. It lets you know that because you are attuned to the finer energies, it is essential to take the time to reconnect with yourself often. I don’t need to tell you how challenging it is to get lost in the busy and insensitive world, right?
7. You easily feel exhausted when you do more than you're meant to do
As a highly sensitive person, you're not meant to work long hours, be extraverted, and try to produce like the world demands of people. Taking breaks, working less, and spending more time connected to your inner world are as essential to you as a good organic healthy meal.
8. You prefer to hang out with one, maybe two people
Because this is where you can connect on a deeper, meaningful level. Rowdy crowds just don’t do it for you. You're ready to go home long before the peak of the party is reached. One nourishing quality conversation with just one like-hearted soul makes the party feel worthwhile for your time and energy. If you try to mingle with many people in a high quantity, less nurturing way, you’ll leave wishing you’d never left home that evening.
9. You like your alone time
For the most part, you prefer staying home with your cats and dogs and a good book rather than going out for entertainment. Most highly sensitive people feel very nourished by their pets and don’t feel the need to go out and search for a connection. A soulmate may be welcome, as long as you feel met in a deep, fulfilling way. Feeling connected on a deep level is non-negotiable.
10. You feel weird or different like you don’t fit in
Well, maybe there is some truth to that — but not in a negative way. The word "weird" stems from the Anglo-Saxon word wyrd. It roughly corresponds to fate or personal destiny or the power to control fate. My suggestion to all highly sensitive people: Be wyrd, because it's your destiny. It just means you are different from the crowds and that you're meant to be.
How wonderful that being a sensitive, "wyrd" person is your divine destiny. It was never your destiny to fit into a world too far from your natural reality. Over my lifetime, I’ve had to learn — yes learn — to be myself, to be okay with being different and weird, and to embrace my sensitivities as a wonderful, needed gift in this world. Being different does not mean there's anything wrong with you. It just means you're different — and let me tell you — you aren't alone in your sensitivity.
There is a rising tide of sensitive people who are rising to the occasion that the world is calling for: Your sensitivity is needed, dear one. Your time has come to help lift the insensitive, heavy, and unconscious frequencies into the new paradigm. It's not a mistake that you're sensitive, feel everything, feel everybody, just "know" things, can’t relate to others, find no interest in the mundane activities in the world, or feel a little lost.
Maybe you're going through what feels like you are shedding a skin that was never yours — and you feel a little bare, standing out like that. This is all part of the transition you're going through as you embrace your finer energies and learn to play the field in a new way. Your energies and frequencies were never meant to fit into this world.
They were meant to uplift this world to match your higher sensitivities. Blessedly you are not alone anymore. Reach out, speak up, connect, and let your voice be heard amongst other like-hearted sensitive souls so we can support, acknowledge, celebrate, and encourage each other to shine your light onto this world together.
Pernilla Lillarose is a self-love mystic mentor and certified Hakomi practitioner.