Why mindfulness is healing for the highly sensitive person
Sensitive people experience sensory stimuli -- sights, sounds, and smells -- much “louder” than others. They also experience emotions with greater depth and intensity.
Often it may feel like multiple powerful sensations and emotions are coming in from different places all at once. This can lead to overwhelm.
One way sensitive people cope with this experience of overwhelm is by going to their thinking mind. Their capacity for deep reflection is a source of great strength. But often, sensory and emotional overload can lead their minds to race or get pulled into a dark spiral of thoughts.
And, getting caught up in the mind can be a lonely. It’s when we’re in our centered in our bodies and our minds are clear that we can have the most fulfilling connections with others. Focusing on negative thoughts can impede our ability to be truly intimate and authentic with others.
Due to the physical and emotional impact of overwhelming stimuli, sensitive people are also prone to stress-related symptoms such as migraines, auto-immune diseases, or irritable bowel syndrome and other gastrointestinal-related disorders.
6 reasons the practice of mindfulness is soothing for sensitive folks:
Grounding in the present by focusing on the breath helps to slow the pace of your nervous system.
Acknowledging and accepting what is here now, rather than resisting it, brings a sense of calm.
Staying with concrete sensory stimuli, such as what you see, hear, smell, or touch, helps to have a touchstone so you don’t get lost in the depths of the mind.
Being attuned to the breath and the body helps you to observe the physical impact of anxiety and the emotions you absorb. Awareness of the stress and tension as it settles in the body can derail physical symptoms, such as headaches and gastrointestinal distress, from developing.
When not caught in the mind, you are more connected to the reality of this moment, which often contains joy.
After much practice, increased clarity allows you to tap into your truest self, and realize how interconnected you are with others.
For sensitive people who take a lot in and can “overthink” -- what you need the most is to be able to stay present, as an anchor from the negative depths your mind can go.
Mindfulness helps you take refuge in the peace of right now. One moment at a time. And as a part of mindfulness practice, you tune into the body so that you can begin to peel apart the many factors impacting your mind and body -- anxiety, emotions, and sensory stimuli.
Though mindfulness helps us to get out of the muck of our minds to the most visible, apparent layer of things -- those which are concrete and physical -- mindfulness is not a “surface” practice.
The paradox is that the more we practice staying with the simple truth of this moment, the more capacity we build to grasp the fullness of what is here now.
Mindfulness, then, allows us to touch into the deeper truths. For example, moments of joy and contentment reside within ourselves. And, connection -- with others and with our world -- is integral to who we are. Though it may seem missing at times, our relatedness never really leaves us. Mindfulness helps us to tap into that sense of connectedness.
So, mindfulness brings incredible value in bringing calm and grounding, and yet the practice goes beyond that -- leading us to a place of feeling less separate from others and ourselves.