Day 8 of the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs. Today’s article is from the founder of Sensitive Evolution, Maria Hill, and asks us to consider life beyond the current circumstances of rejection drama versus rejection in general. Understanding that the human species will forever feel compelled to separate itself into unique peer groups and demonize all other groups may sound like a disheartening basis for the future but we always have free will and free choice in how we choose to experience life.

The astounding aspect of human life on this planet, for me, is that if we just consider it objectively we have this wonderful world with numerous resources and possibilities in which we could create ANY kind of culture or civilization we wish to and, yet we seem to prefer, even feel compelled to acting in mindless ways that betray our abilities to create, connect, and collaborate.

For example, what will happen if and when we colonize Mars? Will it be egalitarian and leave behind the limited ways of thinking and being that we seem unable to escape here on Earth? Or will we simply replicate the same old tired inequities and hierarchies of privilege and power? There is a great sci-fi series called The Expanse that looks into a future where we have distinct and unequal groups, with predictable results of conflict, violence, and horrific inequalities.

Writing a new story on a personal level is always up to us and finding the willingness to eschew old ways of thinking and being, while embracing new ones with people we resonate with. What will be your NEW possible self in 2021? Who do you wish to be that you are not now? Begin to write that story every day this year!

About Maria Hill

Maria Hill is the founder of Sensitive Evolution. She is the author of The Emerging Sensitive: A Guide For Finding Your Place In The World. In addition, she has created the immersive Emerging Sensitive Program of “sensory processing yoga” using frameworks to help sensitive people master their sensitivity and turn it into the asset it can be. She also offers the Emerging Sensitive Movie Club focused on movies and discussions about living in the world as a sensitive person and navigating the challenging cultural shifts of our times. She is a longtime meditator, reiki master, student of alternative health and Ayurveda. Maria is also an abstract painter whose portfolio can be found at Infinite Shape and also very interested in animal and human rights and the environment.

Time For A New Story?

Day 7 of the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs. Today’s article especially applies to the high sensation seeking highly sensitive person in ways we will instantly recognize. The detours, divergences, and easy boredom are all part and parcel of life for we HSS/HSPs and part of our trait. This is not to say that HSPs do not also experience some of the same issues with staying on goal; rather, that being a reflective and deep minded person means that both HSS/HSPs AND HSPs will identify with a need for structure and a way of disciplining our efforts.

List making is a good strategy but is also so easily overlooked or set aside as procrastination sets in. The act of making a list, of making our thoughts concrete on paper, is a useful one because it makes real what may only be swirling vapors of thought in our minds. Another way to stay on goal is to have someone else to be responsible to. Someone who is expecting a draft or segment of a project by a set time. Deadlines are often a great motivator!

About Jason Freeman

Jason Freeman is a professional speaker, author, and bravery coach who travels the country sharing his inspirational and transformative journey with captivated audiences . . . and he does it with a pronounced speech impediment. From the dream affirming standing ovation following his TEDx talk in Sugarland, TX to his earliest moments in front of an attentive crowd, Jason has learned to trust his seemingly contradictory calling to speak in front of live audiences. He has shared the stage with well-known speakers in the transformational, entertainment, entrepreneurship, and business worlds and has charmed audiences at The California Teacher’s Summit, Kyle Cease’s Evolving Out Loud, The Habitude Warrior Conference, The People First Conference in San Diego, and San Diego State University, amongst others. Connect with Jason through his website, Facebook or Youtube channel.

Please click link below to view Jason’s article.

Remember to Pencil Your Sensitivity In

Day 6 of the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs! Today, integrative psychotherapist, Jody Day, explores what to means to be human through grief, involuntary choices, and resilience. This is a thought-provoking article that reminds us of our fundamental powerlessness in the face of nature. Rather than seeing that lack of real control as defeating, we may come to see it as an opportunity for growth, for learning. There will undoubtedly be things that happen to each of us that may not seem “fair,” equitable, or just but they happen anyway and how we choose to respond or process events is always up to us.

This may seem contradictory for HSPs, who may value predictability, stability, and the familiar over the unfamiliar to minimize anxiety and distress but that would be to deny the worth and value of ambiguity and the fundamental nature of life, which is again never fully in our control. Too many HSPs, in my experience, hold themselves back too much and allow their natural inhibition to limit who and what they may become. What’s the worth of having strong developmental potential, as many HSPs often do, when we are too concerned with needing a definite outcome that is predictable? It goes against the reality of life, which is unpredictable, chaotic, and at-risk each moment we are alive.

My advise to HSPs is to not allow our natural inhibition to become so prevalent as to preclude us from developing and growing as fully as we might otherwise. To allow this is to truly not understand what sensory processing sensitivity evolved as a personality trait for in the species. Seek out appropriate mentors in 2021 to help guide and steer you towards greater self-awareness and an accurate understanding of sensory processing sensitivity.

Jody Day is the British founder of Gateway Women, the global friendship and support network for childless women and the author of ‘Living the Life Unexpected: 12 Weeks to Your Plan B for a Meaningful and Fulfilling Future Without Children’.

An HSP herself, she’s a thought-leader on female involuntary childlessness, an integrative psychotherapist, a TEDx speaker and a former Fellow in Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School. A World Childless Week champion, she lives in rural Ireland and is working on a new book.You can engage with Jody directly in Gateway Women’s online community where you’ll find her most days. She’s also on Twitter and Instagram.

Please click the link below to view Jody Day’s article.

Letting Go Of Certainty

Join me on March 13th, 2021 from Noon-4pm, CST for the first ever seminar for high sensation seeking highly sensitive people! With the successes of my highly sensitive men’s seminars, now seems like the right time to also offer coed seminars so that everyone may attend.

The seminar will, first, cover the basics of both personality traits to establish the science and an accurate understanding of the four core aspects of each trait. Next, we will look at some of the crucial areas that impact life as an HSS/HSP like career, self-care, and relationships.

Lastly, we will explore how to realize our often incredible potential as HSS/HSPs throughout our lives. In each segment, we will also touch on many of the nuances of each trait in ways that easily explains why we do better with shorter-duration projects, why we burn out more easily, and how we can find a balance.

If you are a high sensation seeking HSP, this is the seminar for you, in fact, it’s the only one Join me for what promises to be a meaningful and enlightening seminar with fellow HSS/HSPs and let’s build community together.

Please note the set your own price ticket option for anyone who would like to attend, without breaking the bank

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Day 5 of the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs! Today is my article on quiet leadership and how we HSPs require mentoring throughout life in order to know ourselves, to have a context to operate within, and to realize our often prodigious potential.

One of the things I have learned over the years with highly sensitive people is that we are often so out of step with the world in so many ways that we need a calm voice to tell us we are not crazy, that we have something to offer the world of great value, and that we HSPs fit into the overall scheme of survival of the species. Finding that calm and assured voice is often difficult but is more accessible than in the past as we have numerous books, films, and professionals working at all levels to increase awareness and acceptance of sensory processing sensitivity as a normally occurring, natural and neutral personality trait that is non-pathological, one of the better personality traits one can have, and that fundamentally connects us to our core humanness.

Mentors may serve that function and I advise seeking them out as you explore what it means to be an HSP and how you might choose to show up in the world. Quiet leadership, as well, is a choice of how to influence and connect others as we engage in the world in a hundred ways.

About Tracy Cooper, Ph.D.Tracy Cooper, Ph.D. is an international consultant on high sensitivity, an expert in the areas of highly sensitive people and career, the high sensation seeking highly sensitive person, the highly sensitive man, and highly sensitive people and creativity. He has written three book to date: Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career; Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person; and Empowering the Sensitive Male Soul. Dr. Cooper appeared in the 2015 documentary film, Sensitive-The Untold Story, along with many other researchers and experts. He is an Assistant Professor in Baker University’s Ed.D. program in Leadership in Higher Education. Dr. Cooper regularly works with individuals in career crisis and transition, as well as corporations interested in diversity and inclusion initiatives for HSPs, innovation and HSS/HSPs, and frequently speaks on subjects related to sensory processing sensitivity and sensation seeking. Connect with Dr. Cooper at his website, his Facebook page or his Facebook page for sensitive men.

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Quiet Leadership

Day 4 of the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs. Today’s article reiterates the need for self-care for the sensitive brain. I often write about self-care and sometimes think it gets misconstrued as a luxury by many people, even HSPs. The sensitive is a very active one and needs a variety of conditions to be in balance to function well, let alone at its optimal potential.

Esther Bergsma, MA, is a frequent speaker on High Sensitivity in the Netherlands. She is an author, trainer, scientific researcher and expert on High Sensitivity. She wrote three books on the subject. Her book about the brain of the Highly Sensitive Person is now available in English [link: which I will provide later. Esther wants to create awareness about the trait from a more scientific angle. She speaks for medical professionals, psychologist, teachers and managers. Last year, she conducted international research to gain awareness on the trait of High Sensitivity in the workplace. 5500 Highly Sensitive Persons from over 20 countries participated and the results are as important for HSP as for employers.

Connect with Esther through her website which she created as a place for HSPs to meet, learn and share. You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram. Check out her research here.

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Changes And The Brain Of The Sensitive Person

Day 3 of the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs. Today’s post provides us with another take on the need to serve that I mentioned yesterday but utilizing a writing practice as the outlet. Any form of creative expression can, of course, serve others but writing has a particular spot because it requires that people read the work, as opposed to viewing it as with an art object. Writing can also be seen as self-care when one is developing greater self-awareness and contextualizing one’s life, especially as an HSP.

Becoming a self-aware HSP takes time and effort. Mentoring also helps as we learn to navigate this world and reflect on how we choose to show up in it. A writing practice that endures can be a key aspect of an overall awakening to self.

Jenna Avery is a writing coach and the founder of Called to Write, an online community and coaching program designed to help writers make the work of writing actually happen, where she has helped hundreds of writers overcome procrastination, perfectionism, and resistance so they can get their writing onto the page and into the world where it belongs. Jenna is also a screenwriter, columnist for Final Draft and Script Mag, instructor for Script University and The Writer’s Store, editor, and story consultant. As a storyteller, she specializes in sci-fi action and space fantasy. Jenna lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two sons, and three cats, and writes about writing, creativity, and calling at CalledtoWrite.com. Download Jenna’s free guidebooks for writers when you join her mailing list or visit Jenna’s Called to Write community. Financial aid is available.

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Sensitive Writers, Keep Fulfilling Your Calling, Even In Difficult Times

Day 2 of the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs. This article by Ane Axford is an interesting one focused on service to others, while balancing our need for growth and harmony within ourselves. Years ago when I was heavily involved in the arts, one of the nagging questions was, so what? What difference does my art make in the world and how does it serve anyone else? Is it a selfish endeavor that is simply self-aggrandizing? Certainly I enjoyed making art but there was a part of me that needed to serve others and I did not, at that time anyway, see a way to make fine art work.

Later, I came to understand that creativity is more than creating art objects; it can be thought of creative thinking that generates ideas, alternatives, or options. That creative thinking is crucial to any real innovation. So, for me, I was able to eventually balance growth and achieve a sense of harmony about how I choose to serve others.

For those who may not know, I am a professor in an education doctorate program at Baker University and serve in that capacity not only as faculty teaching courses but as a dissertation chairman who helps people achieve their own goals and create original research. In other lives, I create books for HSPs and HSS/HSPs, as well as conduct seminars for HS men, HSPs, and HSS/HSPs (one for HSS/HSPs coming up March 13th in fact). HSPs naturally gravitate towards service to others. What could be more fulfilling than helping other people grow and develop as they move towards achieving their goals? Don’t lose yourself in the role. Keep your perspective and find a happy middle ground where you retain your identity, while serving others.

Ane Axford is a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in sensory sensitivity. She is also a clinical hypnotherapist. Ane is an early voice in support of awareness of sensitivity and has developed a unique program for sensitive people which uses physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and relational processes to strengthen sensitivity through a model called Sensitive Leadership.Connect with Ane at Sensitive Leadership, her Ane Axford website or her Sensitive Leadership Instagram.

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Growth On The Way To Harmony

I am pleased to again collaborate with Maria Hill from Sensitiveevolution.com in presenting the 2021 Empowerment Guide for HSPs! Each day we will present a new article that will help you think about sensitivity in a new or novel way with the hope that it stimulates you to dig deeper, to study more, and to actually read a few books in 2021 and not simply rely on all too brief bits and pieces of often sketchy information on SPS.

Today’s article is from my fellow International Consultant on High Sensitivity, Barbara Allen. Barbara Allen is based in the U.K. She founded Growing Unlimited Therapeutic Consultancy (2002) and the National Centre for High Sensitivity (2010-19). In 2013, she retired as a qualified integrative therapist, group worker and supervisor after working in the therapeutic field for 20 years. Barbara has received training on high sensitivity directly from Dr Elaine Aron in the USA. She has written and presents continuing professional development workshops (CPD) for professionals on the trait of sensory processing sensitivity and is a speaker on the topic of highly sensitive people and sensitive living. She facilitates the empowerment of individual HSPs as a mentor 1-1, also supporting parents of HSCs and providing assessments and reports for schools. She facilitates groups and workshops nationally and internationally, co-hosting a number of 4-day HSP Gathering Retreats with Jacquelyn Strickland and creating personal development workshops for HSPs in Europe and USA. She is a founding member of International Consultants in High Sensitivity.

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