Nowadays sensitivity is often seen as a weakness. You are taught from a young age to “toughen up” and “not let things get to us.” As a result, many people bury their sensitivity deep down inside, never allowing themselves to truly FEEL.
But this is a huge mistake.
Your sensitivity is one of your biggest strengths. It is what allows you to feel deeply and connect with others on a meaningful level.
When you embrace your sensitivity, you open yourself up to more love and compassion in the world. You also become more understanding and accepting of others, which creates more peace and harmony.
So don’t be afraid to show your sensitive side. Embrace it as a strength and allow it to enrich your life and the lives of those around you.
Just a little side note here…
Do you know what’s the opposite of being sensitive?
That’s right, it’s insensitive.
And there’s no real power or greatness in being insensitive, is there?
That’s why I’m sharing 5 benefits of being a sensitive person in this blog & 14 ways to embrace your sensitivity as a strength!
5 benefits of being a sensitive person
You are empathetic
As a sensitive person, you are very self-aware and you have the ability to show real empathy. I say REAL empathy because you actually have the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and view things from their perspective. This allows you to reflect on both sides of the story and this is an incredible, valuable strength when it comes to communication.
You are intuitive
By nature, you are very intuitive and because of this, you can sense what’s truly happening around you. Often before others can.
You also pick up on a lot of signals that are missed by other people, think emotions, feelings, energy, and… lies.
Intuitively you know when someone is telling the truth or not. Or when things are off. This helps you to read into situations much quicker than others do and with a lot more insights.
You are compassionate
People love being around you, don’t they? And for good reason!
Your sensitivity lets you feel more deeply than others and because of that, you can show real compassion. It’s an underrated strength in most work cultures but when it comes to relationships… it’s what everyone needs.
Compassion helps you to love, forgive, and to get back up again after a setback.
You are smart
You are smart in an emotional way because as a sensitive person you have a higher EQ!
And because of this, you are good at reading others, reading situations, and you’re better at relationships because you care & understand others.
You are ALIVE
You are alive because you FEEL!
Your energy is moving and you truly know how to enjoy life, how to appreciate life, even when it comes to the smallest things.
When you are in tune with your sensitivity, with who you truly are, your feelings make every day better. They help you to feel and take conscious actions that are aligned with your hopes, dreams & desires.
Want to know how you can get more in tune with your sensitivity?
Start embracing your sensitivity as a strength, here are 14 ways to do so!
14 ways to embrace your sensitivity
Understand your sensitivity
If you want to embrace your sensitivity as a strength it’s important to understand that your sensitivity is a part of you, just as your body parts are.
It’s not something you can get rid of or turn off, it’s there and it’s not going anywhere. It’s something that you’re given and it helps you to do things that others can’t.
For example
- Your sensitivity allows you to feel deeply and connect with others on a deeper level.
- Your sensitivity makes you more compassionate and understanding of others.
- Your sensitivity allows you to see the beauty in life and the world around you.
It’s an amazing gift and the basis of the sympathy and empathy that people need, however…
You’ve probably thought about it in a different way as well.
That you wanted to lose your sensitivity because at times you feel SO MUCH, it can almost feel like too much. You don’t like this and the people around you don’t like it either and can start saying hurtful things such as “you’re too sensitive”.
I get it, I really do.
That’s why it’s extra important to understand your sensitivity better, recognize your triggers, set healthy boundaries with people, and more. This will help you to start seeing things as they are.
For example who is telling you that you are “too sensitive”. Because when someone does this, it has nothing to do with you and EVERYTHING with that person.
Look at who’s telling you this
Not everyone is a sensitive person. It’s good to keep that in mind.
Someone who’s not very in tune with their feelings might find you “too sensitive”.
Does that mean that you are? Of course not.
Let’s not forget that they have their own conditioning going on. Often when people weren’t allowed to express their emotions & feelings freely growing up, they are not comfortable being around people who do so. Simply because they’ve come to believe that those are not to be shown. Or because they feel that they couldn’t, no one can.
Does that mean it’s true? Absolutely not, but it’s good to know where they’re coming from.
Having a good look at who’s telling you this and discovering why they say this, will help you not to take things too personally as well!
Set strong & healthy boundaries
What boundaries do you have in place? It’s important to have strong & healthy boundaries, especially when you’re a sensitive person!
Have a look at who has access to your sensitivity.
When do you use it?
When not?
Just because you are this beautiful, sensitive person, doesn’t mean that you have to share that with everyone.
It doesn’t mean that everyone gets access to it anytime, anywhere.
No, it’s very important to have good boundaries in place to protect yourself, your energy & your emotions.
Want to know more about setting boundaries for sensitive people?
CLICK HERE to discover HOW to set those & communicate them.
Know your limits
Most of the time your sensitivity is your superpower and sometimes… it’s not.
It’s good to be aware of this.
When you know your limits & when to empower your sensitivity and when not, you learn to protect yourself and to keep yourself safe.
This comes back to having strong & healthy boundaries as well.
Because especially as a sensitive person, it’s important to know your limits.
How can you regulate your input for example when it comes to negativity?
How can you regulate the input of other people’s emotions?
They can really drain your energy, can’t they?
To prevent a sensory overload it’s important to set boundaries when it comes to how much you take in on a daily basis and… to learn how you can calm yourself, your senses, and your nervous system.
One way to do this is with my free meditation where I will guide you through a powerful breathing exercise & body scan to calm your body & mind.
Communicate your needs
Not everyone is sensitive and that’s okay. It just means that we all have different needs.
That’s why it’s important to explore what your needs are so you can communicate them.
Take time to discover what you need from your environment, the people around you & yourself.
By doing so, you’re building a stronger relationship with yourself, you’re looking out for yourself and you’re embracing who you are so you truly get to be yourself.
Ow and… you’re getting your needs met.
This has WIN-WIN written all over it!
Create space for ALL your emotions
Name your emotions & nurture them!
Acknowledging your emotions is important when you want to embrace your sensitivity as your strength.
And we’re talking ALL emotions here, not just the ones that you feel are okay to share.
Yes, people like to label emotions as “good” & “bad”, but at the end of the day, they are just… emotions. There is no good or bad or right or wrong. They are all emotions that deserve (and need) to be felt and processed.
Now, chances are that you have developed certain patterns over the years to fight certain emotions like anger & sadness and it’s important to know that this is only hurting you.
Emotions pop up for a reason & fighting them or suppressing them is not going to help. One way or another, they will come out. Whether that’s expressed emotionally or through physical pain.
It’s very important that you start caring for yourself & your emotions, just as you would care for a good friend.
If this is something you struggle with, make sure to book your free 30-minute breakthrough call with me. During this call, you’ll discover why it’s hard for you to express certain emotions & how you can turn that around so you can start living a healthy life & accept ALL your emotions.
Discover your triggers
Everyone has triggers, you have them as well. It’s good to know that they can trigger positive memories and negative memories.
What helps is to identify what your triggers are so you can be aware of them. So you can understand yourself better and take conscious action to care for yourself when you get triggered in a negative way.
To discover yours, start taking notes when you start to feel strong emotions as anxiety, fear, sadness, anger or overwhelm. What made you feel this way? What triggered this feeling in you?
Was it something someone said? How it was said? Was it something someone did? Was it a certain smell? Or a song?
Triggers are often small things that remind you of a previous event that made a big impact on you. And I spend quite some time working with my clients on this in my framework Happy Life by Design because getting to the root of the trigger is essential to making change happen.
Doing so will give you a much better understanding of your actions and reactions and help you to embrace your sensitivity.
Try to see triggers as guides.
They are showing you what you believe about yourself and they give you a choice of what stories you want to create, but they also give you the opportunity to change the belief that you’re having.
Ask yourself when you get triggered…
Are the thoughts that are coming up true? Or would you like to create a different story? A story that helps you, serves you & supports you?
Diving into your triggers and your patterns helps you do just that!
Stop apologizing for your feelings
One of the automatic responses that sensitive people have developed is apologizing.
This is not because you’re doing something wrong, but because you’ve come to believe that showing emotions is “too much”. People have called you “too sensitive”, “too emotional” or maybe even “too much” and now whenever you feel that people are not happy or pleased with the way you react, you apologize.
Because you don’t want to be “too sensitive”, “too emotional” or “too much”, do you?
But let me tell you this, you are none of those things.
You are being your beautiful authentic self and it takes real courage to be vulnerable enough to show that side of you.
And if your reaction is stronger than it normally would be, it might just as well be that you’re triggered. If that’s the case, then it’s good to find out what that trigger was and how to care for yourself so you get out of that triggered state.
Either way, never apologize for being who you are, for feeling what you feel, and for expressing that.
Your sensitivity is incredibly powerful and when you stop apologizing for it, you create the opportunity to embrace your sensitivity as your strength!
Tap into your creativity
Sensitive people are often very creative. In many ways.
All those ideas that pop up in your head on a daily basis? Start using them!
A part of your sensitivity is that you’re a boss when it comes to brainstorming ideas & solving problems.
Plus, because of your sensitivity, YOU are able to come up with innovative solutions & fascinating breakthroughs that will satisfy a lot of the people involved. That’s because YOU have the ability to take everyone’s opinions, emotions & ideas into account and can come up with an idea that actually works.
Not many people can do that but YOU are able to do that because of your sensitivity.
Your creativity can show in many different ways and when I look at my clients they often use it at work as well. For example, I’m working with interior designers, artists, writers, stylists, and more.
If you want to start tapping into your creativity as well, one way to do is to stop doing & start being. Stop ticking off lists all day, running from one task to another.
Consciously set time aside where you have nothing planned, so there is nothing you have to do.
Use that time to get in touch with yourself and what you want to explore in those moments. Slowing down & creating space for those “in the moment” decisions will help you to get off the hamster wheel and get closer to your creativity.
Plus they will help you to enjoy your life even more!
Start trusting your intuition again
When was the last time that you listened to your intuition? To your gut feeling?
For sensitive people, it’s very important to do this or to start doing this.
Often when people start working with me they are very disconnected from their intuition because people have told them many times in their lives that they were “wrong” or it wasn’t “based on facts”. But when you do this, you’re basically saying that you aren’t trusting yourself.
And what happened over time is that they stopped relying on themselves for answers & making decisions and started relying on others.
I’m sure you can see that this doesn’t do any good for your relationship with yourself. Because especially for sensitive people, their gut feeling is guiding them. It’s telling them what’s right for them and what’s not.
So the next time that you have to make a decision, try to tap into your intuition first. What is it telling you? And then go from there because… it’s probably right!
Do what you best: help others
After taking care of yourself, and this is something that has to come first for sensitive people, see how you can help others.
Whether it’s your family, your friends, or as a career, see how you can help. Because you are one of the few who can genuinely help others!
You have the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes and truly help them from their point of view. This is a rare skill that should not be underestimated.
Set time aside for YOU
Yes, me-time is a trend nowadays…
And to be honest, for sensitive people it’s essential to have me-time, to schedule me-time, to spend time alone. Especially if you want to embrace your sensitivity as a strength.
You need this time apart to process all your thoughts, feelings emotions, experiences, etc.
If you don’t, you’ll start feeling overwhelmed by all of it because your senses are being overstimulated and you’re keeping it all in.
Allow yourself time to go over the experiences. ALL experiences, not just the “bad” or the “good” ones. Because of your sensitivity, you feel a lot, you sense a lot, and you take it all in.
Use this precious time to let it all out again.
Let go of perfectionism
Are you a bit of a perfectionist? You’re not the only one.
Especially sensitive people have a little perfectionist hidden in them and it’s not for the obvious reason!
Your sensitivity doesn’t drive you to great lengths so “you can be the best”.
No, the little perfectionist shows up because you don’t like to let other people down.
Does that sound familiar?
You don’t like to let others down so you feel the need to keep improving yourself, To make things better, or… it won’t be good enough.
You won’t be good enough.
You keep going because you think that if you just keep pushing yourself, you’ll get there eventually, right?
Unfortunately, that’s never going to happen, until… YOU decide it’s good enough.
You have to step up, you have to develop trust in yourself and with yourself again so YOU can make that decision.
And with all the feelings that you’re experiencing on a daily basis, encourage that feeling of “it’s good enough” more often.
This way you’ll start using your sensitivity as a strength for yourself as well!
And if this is tough for you, make sure to book your free 30-minute breakthrough call with me. During this call, you’ll discover what triggers the perfectionist in you and how you can turn that around.
So that YOU get to decide when things are good enough, when you are good enough and you can start living your best life.
Celebrate your awesomeness
For you, all the amazingness that comes with being sensitive is normal. It’s everyday life, isn’t it?
But others it’s not!
People are very focused on themselves these days and when they come across you, chances are that they are a bit overwhelmed by your kindness, by your care because for them it’s not something that happens every day.
So take a step back and acknowledge ALL the good that you are doing.
How you are helping others, how you are showing up for others, and then…
Reflect on how you are going to show that to yourself as well.
Because I want you to start taking care of yourself, just as much as you are taking care of others.
Something that can help you with this is the Happiness Checklist.
It’s a free tool & has the perfect mixture of taking care of yourself & others.
Conclusion
There are many ways to embrace your sensitivity as your strength and the best thing about them is… they don’t cost anything. All 14 ways to embrace your sensitivity as your strength are simple & free!
Let me sum them up for you as a quick reminder
- Understand your sensitivity
- Look at who’s telling you this
- Set strong & healthy boundaries
- Know your limits
- Communicate your needs
- Create space for ALL your emotions
- Discover your triggers
- Stop apologizing for your feelings
- Tap into your creativity
- Start trusting your intuition again
- Do what you best: help others
- Set time aside for you
- Let go of perfectionism
- Celebrate your awesomeness
Now if you want to know more or if you have a hard time embracing your sensitivity as your strength, you can book your free 30-minute breakthrough call with me.
In those 30 minutes, we’ll dive into why it’s hard for you and how you can turn that around so you can start living your best life while being your amazing self.
Lots of love & authenticity,
