Elaine Aron

The psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote very wisely on the subject, calling it a tendency to turn inward. The work of Jung, himself an HSP, has been a major help to me, but the more scientific work on introversion was focused on introverts not being sociable, and it was that idea which made me wonder if introversion and sensitivity were being wrongly equated.

But that, too, is part of being an HSP. We are often the first ones to see what needs to be done. As our confidence in our virtues grows, perhaps more and more of us will speak up—in our sensitive way.

After thinking for so long that you might be the only one, it is nice to. have company, isn’t it?

Furthermore, this deeper processing of subtle details causes you to consider the past or future more.

hunch is that it survives in a certain percentage of all higher animals because it is useful to have at least a few around who are always watching for subtle signs.

We humans, and HSPs especially, are acutely aware of the past and future. On top of that, if necessity is the mother of invention, HSPs must spend far more time trying to invent solutions to human problems just because they are more sensitive to hunger, cold, insecurity, exhaustion, and illness.

You and I are learning to see our trait as a neutral thing—use—ful in some situations, not in others—but our culture definitely does not see it, or any trait, as neutral.

Think about the impact on you of not being the ideal for your culture. It has to affect you—not only how others have treated you but how you have come to treat yourself.

Just be careful about accepting labels for yourself, such as “inhibited,” “introverted,” or “shy.”

Reframing is a term from cognitive psychotherapy which simply means seeing something in a new way, in a new context, with a new frame around it.