Are you a Highly Sensitive Person? Turn your Remarkable Gifts Into Success!

Have you ever been told you are Super Sensitive or Emotionally Oversensitive?

Well if so, I can relate totally to what you're feeling. All my life I was always told I was a highly sensitive person. Many times people would not tell me important things simply because they feared they would hurt my feelings. When I think back to junior high and high school, I was often teased and picked on because I would easily cry and show emotion. However, as I grew older I got tired of being the "sensitive one" because it made me feel inferior and weak. Having this label made me feel like a child who was too young to handle adult responsibilities and experiences and I found myself feeling embarrassed when someone in my family would refer to me as the oversensitive one. For the past few years I have tried very hard to conquer this "stigma" and throughout my research, i was surprised to discover that there are actually some advantages and gifts associated with the overly sensitive individual. Here is what I found.

Over sensitive people are exceptional in a way that they are highly intuitive, very caring, creative and empathetic. They have great emotional passion, depth and perception and they often times feel the need to service and help others. Their empathetic ability is a normal ability that each human being is born with but the overly sensitive person has got a much higher advantage in using this ability. Over sensitive people experience happiness more often because their emotions are felt on a deeper level than the normal person. They have so much to offer and contribute to themselves and others but unless they learn to let the advantages dominate the disadvantages, dealing with over sensitivity on a day to day basis will cause much pain and inhibit you from the success and happiness you deserve.

In order to turn your remarkable gifts into success you must first change how you view criticism. If someone says you didn't perform well today at the piano recital, this doesn't mean you are a terrible pianist or a failure and you're worthless. It's not the words that are hurtful, it's the underlying meaning that we associate with the criticism. So, what causes your view of the criticism to be a bad thing? Most often it's the negative self talk such as "I'm not good enough" or "I've never been smart." A lack of self confidence is one of the major factors that can cause you to put yourself down and create negative self talk. By building your self confidence and changing your negative self talk to something positive you will change your perspective on what you hear and you will no longer feel hurt. I know it all seems easier said than done but if you truly want to conquer this you must learn to stop the negative noises in your mind.

The second thing you must pay close attention to is your moods and emotions and how others moods and emotions affect you. Over sensitive people have a strong empathetic insight into how others feel so be sure not to confuse someone else's feelings with yours. Use your great communication skills and perceptions to help others as opposed to letting their moods affect you.


Also, you must try not to blow things out of proportion and over exaggerate. This is very hard to do because super sensitive people truly feel their feelings at that magnitude but if you don't get the exaggeration under control, unfortunately people will not take you seriously and will assume you're over reacting and distorting the truth. One little saying that helps me when my emotions take over is "Act, don't react" This principle takes a great deal of maturity and humility. Most of us react defensively to any negative feedback we hear directly or indirectly. It is hard to remain stoic when someone criticizes us or says something we don't like or want to hear.


The final point I'd like to make is take steps to build your self confidence. Without self confidence you will surely miss out on alot of available opportunities because you will be afraid to take risks. In order to improve your confidence you need to stop putting alot of weight on what people think of you. Sit down and make a list of your strengths and weaknesses and keep it in front of you daily. If someone makes a comment, match it to your list and if it doesn't match, dismiss it. Don't let other people define your self image.


Over sensitive people do not have a mental illness and they're not weak. They're actually very strong because they allow themselves to feel naturally. Many people block out their feelings because they do not want to feel pain, anger or sadness which can greatly affect a person's mental health and stability but that's not you. You have so many remarkable gifts to give others. Take your ability to be empathetic and creative and turn it into success by helping others. Your strengths are empathy, great emotional passion and perception, to name a few, so take those gifts and give them BACK TO YOURSELF! What a concept! That's the secret and that's the key to your success. Once you do that, you will be on the road to a happier and fulfilling life.