Highly Sensitive People

We are all on a path of self-discovery and a remembering  and experiencing of Who We Really Are. We knew who we were and why we came before we got here but have just forgotten along the way. That's why it's not so much about learning something new as it is just being reminded and remembering what we forgot. 

I can tell when I hear one of these forgotten truths by the way I feel when I hear it or read it. It feels good; I resonate with it.

I came across several websites and articles about Highly Sensitive People (HSP) recently and in reading the traits and characteristics of them I discovered I answered yes to all of them. This didn't really surprise me because I had already discovered I am an Empath, which I have talked about more in depth here, here, and here.

According to Dr. Elaine Aron, a psychologist who has been studying HSPs for the last 20 years, about 20 percent of the population are highly sensitive (sometimes referred to as super or ultra sensitive), and according to Dr. Michael Smith, who has been studying Empaths for about as long, says about 5 percent of these are Empaths. Dr. Aron is currently working on creating a documentary about HSPs called Sensitive, and is an HSP herself. 

In sharing with others close to me what I discover on my never ending journey of learning about myself and Who I Really Am, it helps them in discovering things about themselves too. For example, just recently I shared  a list of traits of HSPs with my mother. She was surprised to discover she also answered yes to all of them. My mom has never been aware that she is considered to be in the 20 percent of the population that is highly sensitive. I didn't know this about her either; though it makes sense given that I am and it typically is inherited. I haven't always known I was an Empath or an Indigo either. I discovered these just a couple years ago. It's all part of our awakening and shifting into higher levels of consciousness.

In comparing the list of traits for Empaths and the list of traits for Highly Sensitive People, though they share a few common characteristics, the traits are different. Here is a clear definition of and distinction between them written by Liz Zambrano in a recent article in OM Times magazine:

A HSP, or highly sensitive person is a person having the trait of high sensory processing sensitivity (or innate sensitiveness) as Carl Jung originally coined it. According to Elaine N. Aron and colleagues as well as other researchers, highly sensitive people, who comprise about a fifth of the population (equal numbers in men and women), may process sensory data much more deeply and thoroughly due to a biological difference in their nervous system (Wikipedia).

An Empath, goes a bit further (Wikipedia), by “observing another person’s emotional state, activates parts of the neuronal network involved in processing that same state in oneself, whether it is disgust, touch, or pain”. Empaths have the ability to scan another’s energy for thoughts, feelings and possibly for past, present, and future life occurrences.

Click here for a list of 41 traits of HSPs I compiled from several different sources.