5 min read
If we look at how people process sensations of light, sound, touch, we will see a spectrum with highly sensitive people at one side, slightly sensitive people on the other side, and people with average sensitivity somewhere between the two.
Highly sensitive people, or HSP, tend to be more aware of minute details of their environment. Highly sensitive people would notice the color and brightness of the light in the room and associate it immediately either with pleasure or stress. They would be annoyed by harsh or loud sounds and would try either to reduce the noise or to avoid it. Highly sensitive people would choose very soft and fluffy clothes and will hate clothing tags.
Besides their high sensitivity to sensory signals, highly sensitive people tend to process the factual information, their own thoughts and feelings differently than people with average or low sensitivity.
The main challenge for highly sensitive people is to protect themselves from being overwhelmed by recognizing their vulnerabilities and bodily signs of overload.
Highly sensitive people like to process factual information deeper and at a slower speed. They like to take their time to categorize information, make the connections between the concepts, create an overview of what they learned or understood, and see which implications it can have for them. These mental processes require time but also regular disconnection from the learning material.
That is why highly sensitive people process factual information in batches. For some time, they perceive, listen, read and when they received enough input, they disconnect from source of information. This is when the creative processing and categorization starts. During this time, it is best for them to focus on doing manual tasks, which do not require much imagination. Householding, sport, walking a dog, doing groceries, etc. suit perfectly for this period. After such period of creative processing, highly sensitive people can see a big picture in what they learned, and they understand how they can use the new information. This when they are ready for the new information.
When highly sensitive people are forced to continue receive factual information and when they cannot take time to disconnect from the source of factual information, they can get overwhelmed. The first sign of being overwhelmed is mental distancing, which feels like “I do not care about this information anymore and I do not want to know more.” The following sign is procrastination. Even though they know that they need to learn something or to do something, highly sensitive people will seek distraction. Procrastination can lead to many different things, such as feeling guilt, shape, being depressed, etc.
The best way to avoid mental overload and procrastination, is to respect the cycle of receiving and processing of the new information and to remain respectful to the signs of mental overload. After a period of intense learning, plan some idle time to let your mind process the new information, or even better do something routine or exercise. When you feel some mental distancing, respect it and stop getting new information.
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