The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

4. Help With Feeling Okay When Out in the World and Learning When to Be Less Out. You can be, should be, and need to be involved in the world. It truly needs you.

Healing. If you have not yet done so, you must begin to heal the deeper wounds.

2. Reframing. You must actively reframe much of your past in the light of knowing you came into the world highly sensitive.

1. Self-knowledge.

What You Need

Having a sensitive nervous system is normal, a basically neutral trait. You probably inherited it. It occurs in about 15-20 percent of the population. It means you are aware of subtleties in your surroundings, a great advantage in many situations.

But you are unique, not identical to a general description or like any statistically average—actually nonexistent— person.

Every Highly Sensitive Person Is Different, and Different at Different Times

This brings us to emotional regulation—having the right emotion at the right time and in the right amount. (This does not mean learning to be bland. Intense awe, joy, or creative energy at the right time and place can be the right amount.)