Are You Ready to Thrive as a Highly Sensitive Person?
Guest Article by Susanna Grinsvall
Only 15-20% of the population has the personality trait of high sensitivity. This means that as a highly sensitive person (HSP) you possess gifts and encounter challenges that 80-85% of the world doesn’t. With your highly fine-tuned nervous system, you are aware of so much more and feel things deeper than most people around you. Because of how the nervous system is wired, this personality trait presents an unparalleled potential. Are you ready to thrive as a highly sensitive person?
From potential to tangible results: it takes training
So how do you go from having an unparalleled potential to living a life that you absolutely love? That’s what this article is all about.
It might help to think of your sensitivity as having a powerful device in your hands that requires training for you to be able to use it properly. Let’s pretend that someone puts the latest model of a fancy device, with thousands of amazing features, in front of you. The problem is that you’ve never seen this kind of device before. Would you be able to benefit from those amazing features? Probably not. You would look at the device, then look at the person who put it there, wondering: What am I supposed to do with this?
Same thing with your personality trait. You were born with it – but nobody gave you the “owner’s manual”. It’s up to you to figure out what you’re supposed to do with it.
I recommend learning from a professional who’s made it her life mission to help HSPs navigate through life and thrive! This will take the guesswork out and save you lots of time and suffering. Julie Bjelland has helped thousands of highly sensitive people over the years. From these experiences she has extracted the most precious knowledge and wisdom, organizing the content in three high performing online courses:
Brain-training: Techniques to Reduce Anxiety & Overwhelming Emotions
The HSP ToolBox: Holistic Tools to Calm a Sensitive Nervous System
How well do you know yourself?
The difference between thriving – blooming brilliantly, in Julie’s words – and barely getting by is surprisingly simple: you must know yourself. And know yourself well.
We live in a world that believes in lack. This generates multiple difficulties, dysfunctions, and suffering. Because highly sensitive people feel everything so intensely, we tend to suffer both from our own struggles and the struggles of others. We feel the “weight of the world”, so to speak. But the fact that we feel it doesn’t mean that we have to carry it. On the contrary.
Many of us need to learn to set healthy boundaries and honor our own needs. Furthermore, many of us need to learn to negotiate better. Nobody will give us what we deserve just because we’re good people. We have to claim what we want. The course “Blooming Brilliantly” teaches you these things and much more.
An “aha” moment for me was when Julie explained that the reason why HSPs can have a hard time getting what they want in a negotiation, is that they tend to empathize with the other person. Instead of starting out in the position of their ideal outcome, and negotiating from there, HSPs tend to consider the counterpart’s needs and desires, and compromise already when starting out. Big mistake. If you do this, you’ll end up receiving something even further away from what you wanted.
Is your brain trained to thrive – or merely to survive?
Julie teaches that it takes 5-8 positives to counter 1 negative. This is so because the brain automatically gives more attention to negative events than positive ones. Our ancestors had to pay more attention to threats (negative events) to survive. If it weren’t for this mechanism, we wouldn’t be here today to tell the story.
However, life conditions of today’s world are very different from those of our ancestors. The world evolves much faster than the genetic setup of our bodies, including the brain. Therefore, the default settings of our brain are still set to “survive”. If we want to thrive, we need to actively choose to do so. Deliberate action is required to move out of the default “survival mode” and learn to live life on our own terms.
Add to that, that highly sensitive brains work differently than less sensitive brains in some respects. For instance, HSPs have an overactive amygdala, which is the part of the brain that’s responsible for the fight/ flight-mode. This explains why HSPs can be more prone to stress. Again, this is the default setting. We do have the power to make positive and sustainable changes in our lives.
Having an HSP toolbox readily available is essential
Julie says that the reason many popular methods don’t work for us, is that they were created for the other 80-85% – not for us. This was an “aha” moment for me. Learning about our personality trait and embracing it fully truly changes everything!
Having an HSP toolbox readily available is essential to your well-being. Julie’s HSP ToolBox teaches you tools that help you create daily routines to support you, including tools to activate calming centers and to protect your energy.
Do you dream of starting your own business?
Many HSPs dream of starting their own business. The prospect of having more time freedom and more income can be very tempting. In addition, if you envision an online business, you would be able to work from the comfort of your own home. Who wouldn’t want more control over their life situation, right?
However, running a business also presents certain challenges. You must learn to feel confident being visible, because your potential clients can only find you if you’re visible in the right places. Your boundaries will also be put to the test repeatedly. And there’ll always be more work that could be done – including on weekends. Having the discipline to rest and restore during your free time is just as important as having the discipline to be productive when working.
Counting on the expertise and guidance of a more experienced business-owner is a must if you’re just starting out. The cost of trial and error would simply be too high – especially the cost of missed opportunities. Having the right guidance, on the other hand, can make your business soar!
Julie’s course for HSPs in business is a gold mine! It’s suitable both for HSPs considering starting a business, and for HSPs who are already running a business and looking for ways to optimize it.
You are worthy!
The best part of these courses? You get eight weeks FREE membership in the Sensitive Empowerment Community when you sign up. Just make sure you use the link provided within the courses.
I can’t even begin to tell you how much it has meant to me to be a member of this beautiful community. It’s a safe place where you can show your true colors. Fellow members will cheer you on, and Julie is present every day to answer your questions. The entire community is there to support you and to celebrate wins with you.
Dear HSP, you are worthy of living the life you desire. With so many incredible resources available, it really depends on you to take that next step to empower yourself. Are you ready to thrive?
Susanna Grinsvall is a writer and workshop facilitator with a degree in psychology and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Her deep understanding of psychology and the Law of Attraction, experience-based insights, intuition and exceptionally sharp sense of observation all shine through in her impactful words and authentic voice. To learn more about her work, please visit www.susannagrinsvall.com.
Julie Bjelland, LMFT, explores the profound effects of chronic amygdala activation on highly sensitive or neurodivergent individuals. This article delves into how overactivation influences mental and physical health and introduces a transformative solution through targeted brain training.