Sensitivity

What does it mean to be sensitive?

The word sensitivity is derived from the word sense, and sensitivity simply means our ability to sense things in life. To sense what we feel around us, what we feel inside.

Often, we see this word misused and re-interpreted as meaning being soft, weak, indecisive, pathetic, and often, emotional. These definitions are simply not true. Sensitivity has *zero* emotion in it.

Sensitivity simply means that we sense, or feel, what is there to be felt.

There is a clear difference between sensing something versus being emotional over something: sensing simply means observing, whereas emotionality is borne of reaction.

Have you ever been dismissed and told you are “too sensitive”?

Can you sense things ‘too much’??

Being sensitive does not mean we are emotional, weak, less than, or any of the other meanings that have been hoisted upon us by those around us that may be in reaction.

Sensitivity simply means our ability to sense things in our environment.

Our sensitivity in life is one of our greatest strengths, as it assists us to navigate through life’s situations. The more we honour and listen to our sensitivity, the more it grows to support us and others in life. This ability is quite important, as we all can sense things even if we are not consciously aware of them.

We ALL can sense the undercurrents of life, whether we like to admit this or not.

Have you ever walked down the street perhaps with headphones on or looking at your phone, and sensed something coming towards you? Or perhaps you have been walking alone late at night and sensed someone behind you, and felt to simply “get out of here”. These are examples of how our sensitivity is key in guiding us, ensuring we remain safe.

Have you ever walked into a room and sensed that someone in the room had been arguing, yet they tell you differently? Have you ever sensed an attraction between a couple, yet they deny it is there?

Have you ever walked into a room after someone has been arguing and been told “everything is ok” when clearly you are feeling it is not?

Have you ever walked into a room and sensed someone had been talking about you behind your back but they say “everything is fine”?

These are all clear examples of our sensitivity at work.

When others say something completely different to what we sensed, we learn to trust what they are saying versus what we have sensed.

This disconnection between the actions we sensed and the words spoken to us cause us to begin to doubt what it is that we sensed. We go into self-doubt, doubting what it is that we felt inside in that moment.

The more this happens, we begin to doubt ourselves so much that we learn to trust what is said, instead of the natural instinct we felt inside. This builds on the self-doubt, as we seek to bury what we are feeling inside and instead trust what others are telling us. This then begins a shutting down of what it is we had sense and feel – we mistrust ourselves and learn to go against what we innately feel inside.

Our ability to sense what is going on in situations is far greater than we give ourselves conscious credit for, mostly because we have learned to shut down and not honour this innate ability.

Sensing assists us to bring greater understanding to situations within ourselves and with others. It takes us away from letting our thoughts run away with what we might perceive is the truth based upon our layers of interpretation, and simply be with what we feel.

We all know how super sensitive and aware small children are - they pick up on everything around them. We are all born with this super sensing ability, yet as we grow, we learn to discount this sense, mostly by observing others and to ‘fit in’. We begin to form layers of around our heart and slowly we shut down our innate sensitivity. We begin to ignore this key part of us that assists in understanding life at a much deeper level, which is to feel at the undercurrent level of life.

Growing up, we can harden by being made fun of for our sensitivity and we slowly learn to shut down, to withdraw. Things simply feel too painful for us to seemingly deal with, so we begin to slowly turn off our ability to sense and to honor what we feel inside. Others discount when we express what we feel, or we are made fun of for what we feel and express. We begin to build walls to keep others out. We begin to believe others and trust them for what they think, even though this may contradict what we are actually feeling inside.

We may be mocked for being sensitive: “you’re too sensitive”, when this is simply a way to get us to ignore our sensitivity and to not honour what we are indeed sensing and feeling, because it is simply too much for the other person to handle.

Therefore, it’s not about us, it is not personal.

It is important to note here that if we (or someone else) are reacting, oftentimes we will not consciously be aware that we may coming from a layer or a hurt, hence the importance of our ability to restore our sensitivity: our sensing ability of what is truly going on in the moment.

Deep down inside, there is zero desire to hurt another. Babies are not born murderers.

We do not truly have an ounce of harming in us, we are simply operating from the layers of hurt and not sensing what is actually going on, ie: the undercurrents of life.

We are often made less or ridiculed by others in reaction to us, whether that be parents, schoolteachers or even childhood bullies in the schoolyard. This type of criticism shuts down our innate ability to sense, so instead we change to fit in with others, to be accepted and to be liked.

All simply because someone has reacted to us.

At some point however, this ‘shutting down’ and holding back what we truly felt begins to bubble to the surface. We begin to see how we have closed off a part of ourselves and not trusted in our own feelings.

This is often an opportunity for great healing to occur. An opportunity to begin to honour ourselves and our innate sensitivity.

As we begin to honour our sensitivity, we begin to rebuild our relationship with what we feel, what we have felt and denied to be true for one reason or another.

As we rebuild this relationship, it mightn’t seem so easy at first, for we are relearning to trust what we are feeling, and sometimes doubt can creep back in.

It’s like exercise: we are strengthening a muscle that may have not been used in a while.

As we honour our sensitivity, it assists us to be more in connection with ourselves, with others and with the world around us. We re-establish connection on a whole different level with the world around us, one which brings greater understanding. We begin to see things on a deeper level, which allows us to not only support ourselves to a greater degree, but also to support others, as we can often sense when something is awry with them, or when they need support.

When connected to our own ability to sense, we also can observe ourselves reacting in situations and, using our sensitivity, we can sense that we too may be coming from a layer of our own hurt. This assists us to unpack the layers of hurt that lie buried beneath the surface.

We take off the blinders of hurt we have operated from, and we begin to open ourselves up to see things in a completely different way.

This is true healing, true evolution, as it supports everyone involved. ✨