You have your own skills—talking seriously, listening well, allowing silences in which deeper thoughts can develop.

Self-employment (or being granted full autonomy within a larger organization) is a logical route for HSPs. You control the hours, the stimulation, the kinds of people you will deal with, and there are no hassles with supervisors or coworkers.

This two-system explanation of sensitivity also suggests two different types of HSPs. Some might have only an average-strength pause-to-check system but an activation system that is even weaker. This kind of HSP might be very calm, quiet, and content with a simple life. It’s as if the royal advisors are monks who rule the whole country/person.

Then there is the very human tendency to enter or persist in a close relationship out of sheer fear of being alone, over-aroused, or faced with new or frightening situations. I think this is a major reason why research finds that one-third of college students fall in love during their first year away from home.

There are several theories about why arousal of any kind can lead to attraction if someone appropriate is at hand. One reason might be that we always try to attribute arousal to something, and if we can, we would especially like to attribute it to feeling attraction. Or it may be that high but tolerable levels of arousal are associated in our minds

Statistical analyses of the influence of family environment on different children in the same family show no overlap. Your brothers or sisters lived a totally different childhood. You had different positions in the family, different early experiences, even in a sense different parents, given how adults change with circumstances and age. Finally,

Or as one friend of mine put it, “In the first twenty years we are given our curriculum. In the next twenty we study it.”

whoever is even a little less sensitive becomes the expert in doing anything that might over-arouse the more sensitive one.

If you are an intuitive type, you might plan a vacation by gathering detailed information about where you will go and deciding in advance on everything you will take and do.