Why Every HSP Highly Sensitive Person Should Learn How To Meditate. Why meditation helps the Highly Sensitive Person or Empath become more mentally and emotionally resilient in their life and business.
Daily Challenges Of The HSP Highly Sensitive Person
I believe everyone should learn how to meditate but if you are an empath or HSP I believe meditation is a must. Why? Because if you are an HSP you are more sensitive to the energy and stress of modern-day living. The HSP has a highly sensitive sensory system, basically a more finely tuned nervous system than most people. This gives the HSP a lot more awareness and receptivity to the world around them. But this also makes HSP’s less resilient in some ways more easily overstimulated.
Reasons Why The HSP Highly Sensitive People Should Meditate
The highly sensitive person is often more easily wounded. The HSP Empath is often more scattered in their energy. In many ways, they are often not fully in their energetic body. That is why many highly sensitive empaths are often ungrounded and uncentred. Why so many highly sensitive’s and empaths struggle mentally, physically, and or emotionally in their day-to-day life.
Highly Sensitive Empaths are like energy sponges. So they need to need to learn how to become more centered, grounded, and energetically aware. Meditation naturally helps increase awareness and presence. Meditation can also help us become more grounded and centered.
Why Every HSP Should Meditate Daily
Daily Meditation is so good for your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing
Regular meditative practice is known to lower anxiety and stress levels.
It helps you access a deep space of stillness and peace, so meditation often increases clarity and confidence
We know meditation helps you access much clearer intuition and inner guidance.
Meditation allows you to heal mentally, physically, and emotionally
My Own Meditation Journey As A HSP And Empath
I began meditating over 30 years ago, I tried, tested, and studied various styles and teachings of meditation. As someone with very rare medical challenges that mainstream medicine couldn’t treat, I had to find skills that would make me more physically, mentally, and emotionally resilient. Oh, how I thank god that I found meditation. This was a skill that helped me become so mentally resilient. Meditation helped me deal with so many tremendous and long-term challenges with strength and peace.
One of my earliest teachings of meditation was to a class of rather troublesome young men. I knew teaching meditation to a class of rather rowdy you men might not be a walk in the park. So I went searching for a style of meditation that might accommodate their particular needs. I found a technique that I adapted in which became My 5 Minute Meditation. In-fact this became the most popular meditation tool I ever taught. Loved by not just teenagers, but stressed-out executives, carers, healers, highly sensitive people, and empaths.
Finding The Right Type Of Meditation To Start With
When you find the right type of meditation tool for you, you will build your meditation practice up much stronger. If you have a very busy, demanding lifestyle the 5 Minute Meditation is a great starter tool. But I would still encourage you to practice a more traditional style of meditation into your routine. This form of meditation will help you transcend into living more of your life from a place of meditation.
The problem today is there is a lot of myths and misunderstanding around meditation. Many people give up too quickly on their meditation practice because of a misunderstanding of what meditating actually is.
Beginners Meditation Technique For The Anxious HSP
If you are an HSP who struggles with chronic anxiety and stress I would encourage you to try out a very short style of meditation like my less than 5 Minute Meditation which is great for beginners. This particular technique is really useful for chronic anxiety and even trauma sufferers, so it’s much more gentle than other forms of meditation.
The Right Type Of Meditation Teacher If You Are Highly Sensitive
My advice would be to choose a meditation teacher wisely, find out more about them, years of experience, training, and styles of meditation they teach. If you’re an Empath or HSP you may want to book a one-to-one session with a meditation teacher before attending a class or start with some simple meditation at home. Also, check-in that the meditation teacher actually teaches you how to meditate they are not just practicing or guiding you through guided meditations more like guided visualisations, this is often something very different.
Why Meditation Supports The HSP
Anxiety and emotional wounding is a big problem for the HSP, Meditation helps loosen those challenges as it helps us detach from that wounding. When we meditate we connect with the self, an aspect of us that never changes. This helps nurture a healthy anchor, a stronger connection with where magic and stillness transcends everything else.
How Can You Reduce Stress As A Highly Sensitive Person
The Highly Sensitive Person
is so much more sensitive to external and internal stimuli they need to be more pro-active to reduce stress levels. Anxiety and stress are high in our western busy and over-stimulated way of life. But that doesn’t mean just because you are a highly sensitive person or highly empathic that you need to suffer from chronic anxiety or chronic stress.
Chronic Stress As A Highly Sensitive Person
Chronic stress is triggered by our fears, it is our reaction to the world around us, the way we psychologically and physiologically respond to situations, people, and the things around us. The biggest cause of stress today is our mental thoughts; our conditioning, what we attach and give power to.
But external stimuli such as environmental noise, information overload can certainly play their part so can environmental and internal toxins. But the way we view the world, situations, very much represents how we show up in the world.
If you are an HSP, a highly sensitive person who views the world as a highly harsh, uncaring, and dangerous place. You will show up in the world as a very fearful, highly anxious, sensitive soul. Who struggles to survive never mind find their way in the world.
The highly sensitive person or highly empathic person has tremendous gifts to share with the world. They have tremendous compassion and huge insight into those around them. Especially highly sensitive empaths because they are highly intuitive and highly sensitive to the psyche, the energy and emotions of the people, places and situations around them.
But this can make the sensitive person more vulnerable to other’s anxiety and stress, to mass consciousness, and to many other things that most people can comprehend.
Some famous people who have been regarded as HSP a highly sensitive person include Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Diana- The Princess Of Wales, Judy Garland, Mother Theresa.
6 Simple Ways You Can Deal With Stress As A Highly Sensitive Person
Assertiveness- learn how to say NO, one of the biggest challenges many HSP’s and particular empaths have a challenge with. Is the ability to say NO. Empaths feel others’ pain and fears so deeply they often struggle to identify their own needs. So struggle to set healthy boundaries.
Be Yourself – trying to fit in, comparing yourself to other’s, judging yourself on other’s ideas of what you should and shouldn’t be like. Is a huge source of distress. You are more than enough, even in within your vulnerability, your physical, emotional, and even mental sensitivity, you are enough. You are unique, special, wonderful and here to be you.
Get Soul Connected – Develop a strong soul connection, build a deeper spiritual connection within yourself, your heart and soul. Become more soul-aligned in our spiritual path, to follow our own soul’s guidance and own truth.
Grounded – become more grounded physically, mentally, and emotionally get out of your head, and get connected to your body and the earth around and underneath you. I find the essential oil blend On Guard a great aid. When you are more grounded your energetic field is much stronger so you have healthier boundaries to other people’s negativity and emotions.
Be In The Moment– learn how to be more present, more in the moment, take each step, each day as it comes, let go of yesterday’s and tomorrow’s, see below as meditation and mindfulness can help. You tend to be more grounded and find it easier to naturally assert your own needs when you live in the moment.
Meditate – meditation is a powerful way to connect with the self, that space where stillness and calm resides, where wisdom, true insight and guidance evolves from. Meditation helps quieten the mind and helps develop a powerful connection with our inner wisdom.
Unplug- a highly sensitive person or highly empathic person usually needs to unplug and switch off more frequently than other’s do. HSP’s tend to have sensory processing issues which affects the autonomic nervous system. So the slightest over stimulation can trigger the “fight or flight” stress response. Leaving the HSP highly wired, anxious, stressed, and exhausted.
Cushioning – is a stress management strategy that helps cushion you from the impact of a stressor or stressors. It involves using any practical, therapeutic, or strategical strategy that will help you reduce stress and become more resilient to the stressors of everyday life. It can involve taking action, managing or reducing the stressor in question but also includes an aspect of balance into your life. It involves having a more healthier approach to your everyday life, so you are generally more stress-resilient.
Overcoming Chronic Stress As A Highly Sensitive Person
No matter how long you have suffered chronic anxiety or chronic stress as a highly sensitive person or an empath. You don’t just have to live with it, your life as an HSP doesn’t have to be stressful.
I was a highly anxious, stressed out teenager, who suffered chronic unworthiness, who tried to relentlessly to deny and resist my empathic traits and highly sensitive traits.
I started to suffer extreme health challenges including burn-out from the age of 19. And spent a large part of my twenties extremely ill, exhausted, and isolated. Out of this experience, I became a meditation teacher, healer, coach, and stress management expert.
I have helped many people including many highly sensitive people and highly sensitive children move from a chronic anxious or stress state of being to a more calm confident way of being.
No matter how challenging life may feel at the moment believe me your life as a highly sensitive person can be far richer, peaceful, lighter, and free than you can imagine with the right tools, the right healing and support.
You can learn turn to your sensitivity into your super power gifts, your super powers I share more in my Lightworkers Portal and my 👇 Free 6 Day Stress Resilience Course For Lightworkers 👇
So why does the Highly Sensitive Empath Need To Ground More? How is grounding so soothing and important for Empaths, HSP’s and Lightworkers?
As a Highly Sensitive Empath, it took me many years to realise how ungrounded I was. Despite being a healer for 30 years, I didn’t start to fully appreciate the true level of grounding and why I struggled with it till my 40’s.
Now, grounding may sound like a lot of new-age hippy nonsense. But the reality is grounding and earthing is part of our innate nature. We are humans whose natural habitat is the earth. And part of being physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually balanced involves being connected to our nature, our natural surroundings, and to the earth.
What are Grounding And Earthing?
Basically grounding and earth involves different acts or habits that will naturally help you “ground” or reconnect you to the earth and nature. Grounding is actually something we would naturally do years ago. But sadly a lot of modern life especially city and town living has played a large part in disconnecting us from something that at a core level is innate.
The Highly Sensitive Empath In The Modern Environment
The truth is we all need to ground more especially when we are surrounded by technology, metal, concrete, toxic, plastic, and manmade fabrics. When we are exposed daily to high amounts of Electro-Magnetic Frequencies which contain damaging free radicals and positive electrons. Instead of natural fresh air, bright vitamin boosting sunlight
But for the Highly Sensitive Empath and many lightworkers, the modern environment and way of life can be extremely harsh. Many HSP’s and most empaths are so sensitive to their surroundings, the energy of others and to the external world, they are often not fully grounded in their body.
I know as an Empath and Highly Sensitive Person I was very different from my 8 siblings. Very sensitive to all sorts of things from a young age that dramatically increased at certain stages in my life. My heightened awareness of other people’s needs and emotions, even trauma made me more out of my energy field in some ways than in.
Even though I do work online I find too much EMF exposure can play havoc with my central nervous system at times. And find too much noise and busyness extremely physically and mentally exhausting. You just need to look at a child with sensory processing issues to see how much they are challenged by our chaotic toxic crazy life. A reason why we should be teaching children to ground more.
Why Highly Sensitive Empaths Are More Easily Stimulated And Uncentred
The highly sensitive person especially those that are empathic are already more hypersensitive to everything around them. They often struggle with too much sensory processing, get easily overstimulated, and can pick up and be more sensitive to the energy and frequencies around them. Many find the harsher energies and reality of modern-day living quite frantic and some overwhelming and traumatic. This is especially evident in many children who have serious sensory processing issues with autism. This busy crazy chaotic life is often too overwhelming for the physical, mental, and emotional body. And often in these experiences, the body want’s to like climb out of the energetic body, which leaves them ungrounded. Many HSP’s suffer from chronic anxiety and stress.
The Highly Sensitive Empath And Burn Out
In-fact many highly sensitive empaths end up easily some burn-out, some end up with CFS or Adrenal Fatigue, or other chronic health challenges.
The Highly Sensitive Person who is ungrounded is more likely to suffer from exhaustion especially Adrenal Fatigue or other chronic health challenges. I myself was diagnosed with severe M.E. in my early twenties, a time in my life when this debilitating fatigue and exhaustion left me predominately housebound and bedbound for about 7 years.
Now years later my diagnosis would be not just M.E. but a whole long list of other complex medical challenges including a high probability of late-stage Lyme.
But the reality is many Empaths and HSP’s are so finely tuned to their environment they are high-wired to function at a completely different level as other people, In many ways, their central nervous system is working so much harder. They are far more vulnerable to exhaustion, fatigue, dis-ease especially for the empath with boundary issues. If you are a bit of an unruly empath you will constantly be picking up and even taking on the emotional and physical wounding of others.
So How Can A Highly Sensitive Empath Ground More
Get outside more especially in nature, the countryside, forest, park even walking in some grass
Get barefoot as much as you can, get those shoes, boots even slippers off
Become more body aware, feel into your physical body, feel into your feet. Tai chi and Qi Gong exercises can be a great way to become fully in the body and become more grounded. They can also be extremely useful at helping empaths dispel negative energy they tend to absorb or take on.
Bring more plants into your surrounding, your office, your home, your garden, things like cacti and other EMF reducing plants. These are great to sit next to your computer to help reduce EMF exposure
Use grounding devices and grounding support aids, I use an electric bed to keep slightly upright in bed which is certainly not ideal. So I use a crystal grounding mat in my bed and grounding crystals under my bed.
Reduce stimulants such as caffeine, sugar, alcohol, nicotine these play havoc with your central nervous system and impact your ability to feel more balanced and grounded.
Use grounding essential oils like frankincense, sandalwood, vetivert, doterra has an amazing grounding oil Balance as well as more a protection oil – On Guard ideal for HSP’s. (Contact me directly if you would like to learn more.)
Learn to be in the moment, being in the moment encourages you to be more physically in and aware of your physical body. This is especially important for people with any sort of physical trauma to their body, car accident, traumatic operation, long-term physical violence. The last place people with those sorts of issues want to be is in their body because of the pain or shock but this causes huge emotional disharmony in the mental, emotional, and energetic body.
Learn To Meditate; meditation not only helps us be in the moment, feel calmer, but can help us feel more grounded especially if it is more proper traditional meditation rather than more guided meditations that are actually more guided visualisations where the person is in their head or heart, often out of their physical body.
As someone who has had extreme challenges around being grounded and fully in my body. I have spent nearly 30 years looking for answers and help to many of my challenges. I found that many of the grounding techniques that as I was taught as a healer just didn’t work for me.
So as I started to study this topic a lot more deeply working with many top healers around the world. I quickly realised that grounding has to be the or at least one of the first skills Empaths need to master. Especially today when we are so disconnected from nature and balance.
That is why I created Grounding Tools for Empaths– a grounding toolkit for empaths and highly sensitive people. Powerful yet simple and easy grounding techniques, essential oils, crystals that will help you feel more grounded and balanced on a daily basis. Which is also part of the Essential Empaths Toolkit see below
Common signs of a highly sensitive child? Want to learn if you have a HSP Child? Lets explore some of the challenges and traits of highly sensitive children.
So what are some of the more common signs of a highly sensitive child or HSP?
Thankfully research todays recognises the most common traits of the highly sensitive child or highly sensitive person.
The Highly Sensitive Child Is Intuitive
HSP’s are usually very intuitive and are good judge of character. But because of deep compassion and empathy will often let their heart rule their head. It is important they learn to trust and be guided by their inner guidance.
Highly Sensitive Children Are Easily Overstimulated
The easily over stimulated child is often a HSP. Thus they are more easily stimulated; noise, visuals, smells, touch, movement and taste. For some the sensitivity can be so extreme, it can seriously impact their life. For example they may not be able to tolerate touch or find specific or loud sounds extremely painful, certain clothes too itchy or uncomfortable.
Highly Sensitive Kids Need Time Out
They will usually need more time out and alone. Highly sensitive kids and teenagers need more time to unplug from technology and other’s, Even if they appear sociable and talkative. They burn out and get over stimulated very easily. This can appear as high energy or fun to be around, but can often be over stimulation or over excitement.
Highly Sensitive Child Struggles With Violence In Media, Stories
Dislike Violence, Horror Movies, many highly sensitive children will find even the slightest violence quite disturbing. They can appear very cautious or fearful in doing certain activities which may appear to have a risk such as climbing.
Highly Sensitive Children Over Identify With Other People’s Stuff
They are very sensitive to not just stimuli but are often sensitive and highly empathic to other people’s emotions, needs and pains. In-fact they will often over identify or take on other’s emotional pain, especially as they find it difficult to set healthy boundaries. Which can seriously affect their physical, mental and emotional well-being. They can suffer from Irrational or irrelevant guilt due to their highly empathic nature and difficulty identifying their own emotions with others.
HSP Children Are Often People Pleasers
They tend to be people pleasers, often to their own detriment. Many HSP’s will go out of their way to be kind, please others as they don’t want to hurt others or cause conflict.
Powerful Yet Simple Life Tools You Can Teach A Highly Sensitive Child
Highly sensitive children need calm and respite from the over stimulation and information over load of modern life. As a healer, therapist and stress expert I have witnessed for many years, the huge benefits highly sensitive children achieve from learning meditation. Especially the right meditation skills and the right relaxation techniques. The right type of meditation helps one access inner calm and peace no matter what is happening around them.
Highly sensitive children who struggle and don’t learn how to harness their gifts and traits tend to really struggle in adulthood. The more we can learn how to love, accept and honour ourselves as children, the more happier and healthier we become. But if we are misunderstood, not given the support we need, not taught the skills we need we end up carrying those wounds into adulthood. That is why Inner Child Therapy has became so popular, why so many highly sensitive and highly empathic adults are attracted to Inner Child work.
Tools For The Highly Sensitive Child
Healthy Boundaries
The highly sensitive child needs to learn about personal boundaries from a young age. Be able to learn how important it is to set and maintain healthy emotional and energetic boundaries between other people, parents, siblings, friends and family.
Highly Sensitive Kids Need To Learn To Switch Off And Relax
The HSP Child should learn how to become more resilient to anxiety, stress and any form of over-stimulation. It is important for them to be able to take time out,switch off and relax.
Traditional meditation techniques can help the sensitive child or sensitive teenager find their own inner calm, own inner peace. Guided meditations for sensitive children are extremely common as they can help encourage not just deep relaxation, but help them nurture a safe space within them self.
Highly Sensitive Children Need To Ground More
HSP’s and empaths
often struggle with being grounded and centred. So it is important that they do daily activities that will help them become more earthed and grounded. They can easily do that by spending time in nature, around plants, flowers, trees and animals. The use of essential oils and flower essences can also be very helpful.
Improve A Highly Sensitive Child’s Self Worth And Self Esteem
Parents of a highly sensitive child should work on helping the highly sensitive child know they are enough, the need to learn and develop self-love and self-worth. Not base their worth on being the rescuer, helper or healer to other people’s needs.
Inner Child Work For The Highly Sensitive Adult
Inner Child work when approached safely and effective way can be extremely helpful. But in many ways most inner child healing is about healing trauma so there is certain approaches that must be used. It is not something that can be approached lightly.
As someone who has studied a variety of therapeutic approaches for 30 years. Not just different healing and therapy modalities but counselling, psychology, psychotherapy, archetypes and inner child work. I use a variety of safe and effective tools and approaches in my work to ensure my sessions and courses are safe and soothing.
Eileen has worked with many highly empathic and highly sensitive children and highly sensitive adults, HS kids with Autism, Aspergers and other sensory processing issues. She offers 1-2-1 inner child support for highly sensitive and empathic adults LEARN MORE
