Sensitivity as a Superpower
This topic draws me in because I finally feel comfortable talking about it. Though it wasn’t always this way. It took years of self-reflection and what I now call radical self-acceptance to get here. For the longest time, I saw my sensitivity as a weakness like something to hide, manage, or "get over." But somewhere along the way, I realized: this thing I kept trying to suppress was actually one of my greatest strengths.
Now I see sensitivity as a kind of superpower. And I want to empower other sensitive souls to see it that way, too. Whether through yoga, social media, or posts like this, I feel a deep responsibility to share this message. The more we talk about it, the more we normalize it, and the more we free ourselves from the belief that being sensitive means being fragile.
Let’s talk about what it actually means to be an empath or highly sensitive person (HSP). It’s not a clinical diagnosis; it's a personality trait. HSPs have increased emotional sensitivity and a complex inner life. It means you experience emotions more intensely, notice subtleties in your environment, and often feel deeply affected by the energy around you. It can be overwhelming, but it can also be beautiful.
If you’re new to these terms like an empath, I highly recommend that you read two books that I love. The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People by Judith Orloff. The Empath Experience: What to Do When You Feel Everything by Sydney Campos. These will make you understand what it means to be an empath.
As I deepened my understanding of being an empath and continued to observe myself and people close to me, I realized that there are different types of empaths. I, for example, identify as both an emotional and physical empath. I feel other people's emotions in my body. Meanwhile, my best friend is a plant empath, she literally talks to her plants and treats them like family. And my partner? Definitely an animal empath. Animals just flock to him. He’ll catch and pet snakes like it’s nothing. There’s no fear. Just a genuine, intuitive connection.
Once I understood that what I was experiencing had a name, I began to observe my emotional state more consciously. By the way, I don’t think we really need to identify ourselves with titles like being some kind of an empath. It’s just our nature, accept it, understand it and live with it. It definitely helped me in the beginning but then I let it go. These are just terms to understand how to process our emotions, and how to navigate and live with them. Emotions are like waves, they rise, crest, and eventually fall. But so often, we cling to them, assigning them meaning and turning them into stories. And sometimes, the emotions we’re feeling aren’t even ours. That’s a hard truth for empaths. We absorb energy like sponges. Ever walked into a room where someone was angry and felt it in your own body, even though nothing happened to you? That’s it.
Just like light has a color spectrum, humans live on a sensitivity spectrum. I didn’t "become" sensitive. I was born this way. But I didn’t always see it as a gift. Growing up, I felt like I had to constantly defend my softness. Living in a fast-moving world that values toughness and detachment, sensitivity often gets misunderstood. It took being around "energy vampires" for me to really learn how important it is to protect my inner peace.
That’s why grounding is so essential, especially for those of us who feel everything. When you’re an emotional sponge, you have to wring yourself out from time to time. You have to ask: Is this mine? Did I pick this up from someone else? Nature helps. Movement helps. Breath helps. I’m a water sign, so emotions are kind of my native language. And if I’m not grounded, it’s easy to feel like I’m floating above my life instead of living it.
If this sounds like you, please know this: you don’t have to turn off your sensitivity. You just have to learn how to stay in your own energy field. Build a shield. Get familiar with what your energy feels like so you can recognize when something doesn’t belong to you. When you do that, your sensitivity becomes a tool for healing, for yourself and for others. You might even help people name emotions they didn’t know they had.
This is heart work. Literal heart chakra stuff. Emotions flow through the heart center, and when the chest feels heavy, love has a hard time getting in. Vulnerability helps us keep the heart cracked open. And when the heart is open, joy flows more easily. As Deepak Chopra says, "Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe and transcends all boundaries."
Upon a conversation like this, I once got asked, "How long have you been on the heart path?" I giggled. "I think I was born this way," I said. And I believe that. Some people spend their lives finding their way back to the heart. Some of us just live there. Either way, the heart knows. That quiet voice inside which is your intuition..it always knows the way back.
So I do my best to stay in the circle of love. And, if all of us embraced our sensitivity and returned to love, the world would be more peaceful I believe.
8/1/2024
