highly sensitive power

You guard your softness at times, I’ll bet. When, though? Only when to do otherwise would truly get you hurt? Or has that defensive wall become a habit?

Prove to yourself that the world requires your sensitivity.

After years of wariness around a fierce, but beloved, friend of mine, I decided to be myself around her, no matter what. Rather than trying to fit in with her and her crowd, I stood my ground as the real me, even when it meant saying no, or saying or doing something I couldn’t predict a reaction to. One day, after I started doing this, my friend said, “You are one of the easiest people I’ve ever known to just be around, to just be with.”

Lose the hard shell. Tenderize your surroundings.

Rather than assuming you’ll be splatted, test the edge of the envelope. Notice when you close up from the untried assumption that your soft, glorious, sensitive perspective will get you stomped. You’re much, much stronger than this culture’s idea of being sensitive may have led you to believe you are.

Experiment with letting your guard down more often than you do. Be selective, but be persistent. Start small and safe, but notice as you go how habit doesn’t always serve you. Discover all the ways, every circumstance, in which your sensitive perspective makes a positive difference.

Take a risk. Take the shell off. Take off.

{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of Grace }

Flickr photo: 1..2..3..Fire!, by juliam1111

Related reading: Kudos for Sensitivity, The High Demand for Sensitivity