STRATEGIES TO HELP YOU FIGHT HYPERSENSITIVITY
If your oversensitivity is casting a shadow over every social interaction and negatively impacting your life, it’s time to take therapeutic action. Think of it as self care for the sensitive of the soul.
You deserve to make the very best of your sensitive and empathetic nature.
The following six strategies can help with that.
Table of Contents
- 1 1. Write about what you’re feeling.
- 2 2. Use what you’ve written to identify your triggers.
- 3 3. Learn to distinguish between constructive criticism and egocentrism.
- 4 4. Limit your exposure to negative influences.
- 5 5. Realize that you’re responsible for your emotions — not for others’.
- 6 6. Accept that you’re an observer of others — not a mind-reader.
1. Write about what you’re feeling.
It’s a good thing so many sensitive souls have a weakness for journals. Use that.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed with an emotional reaction to someone’s words or behavior toward you, write about it. Write down what you’re feeling and what thoughts you’re having.
Once you’ve put it all into words, it’s much easier to do what comes next.
2. Use what you’ve written to identify your triggers.
The more you write about what you’re feeling, the easier it is to spot recurring thoughts.
Those thought patterns have roots that can go deep, and you’re better off seeing them and knowing what to do when they surface. As long as you remain blissfully ignorant of those patterns, they’ll keep surfacing, turning the slightest provocation into torture.
Before you can heal yourself, you need to know what your mind is up to.
3. Learn to distinguish between constructive criticism and egocentrism.
Not everyone will like you, and if someone wants to see the worst in you, there’s no point in dwelling on that. Ultimately, it has more to do with them than with you.
On the other hand, constructive criticism — when you recognize it as such — is offered out of love. It’s meant to help, not hurt.
Try to see it as a gift from a child who’s been outside playing in the dirt. It may not look pretty on the outside (because we don’t always know the best words to use), but there’s love in it.
4. Limit your exposure to negative influences.
We’re not saying you should completely avoid people who occasionally say negative things. But those who only see in you what they don’t like don’t need to be in your inner circle.
That ring is best populated by those who love and accept you as you are — those who might, on occasion, offer constructive criticism.
Do not engage those who only want to drag you into a conversation that benefits no one. And if you’re already in one, find an exit.
5. Realize that you’re responsible for your emotions — not for others’.
When you take responsibility for your own emotions and actions, you’re less likely to react in a way that others might take personally. If they choose to do so anyway, that’s on them.
Sometimes, it can be hard to know whether you’re at fault for the way someone feels, especially when they attribute those feelings to something you’ve said or done.
Focus on your own responsibilities. And focus on what you tell yourself (out loud or in your head) — not on what other people might think of you.
6. Accept that you’re an observer of others — not a mind-reader.
You have no control over how someone else will interpret your words and actions. You’re responsible only for what you can control: your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions.
You can’t know what’s going on in other people’s heads, and it does you no good to assume they have bad intentions toward you.
Most times, other people focus on their own thoughts, emotions, and personal challenges, and you’re just a bit player in their story.
So, if their words seem critical, judgmental, or thoughtless, you can usually trust that they’re bothered by something that has nothing to do with you.
