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Are You a Highly Sensitive Eater?

Are you a sensitive soul?

About 20% of the population fall into the category that research psychologist and author, Elaine Aron, calls “High Sensitivity” or being a “Highly Sensitive Person.”

According to Aron, these sensitive souls align with the following 4 characteristics:

#1. Depth of Processing

  • natural tendency to reflect deeply on life

  • rich inner and spiritual life

  • high levels of creativity and intuition

  • deep empathy

  • indecision, getting overwhelmed trying to make the “right” decision

  • over-thinking, may lead to holding back in life

  • often feeling “too intense” or “too deep”

#2. ‘Overarousability’

  • champion of SLOW

  • lots of body signals that give helpful information

  • does best focusing on one thing at a time

  • can quickly reach overwhelm with too much going on

  • chronic state of “fight or flight” response

  • difficult time w/change of any kind

#3. Emotional Intensity

  • incredible compassion

  • prone to strong positive emotions that can often feel euphoric

  • emotional leadership

  • depth of heavy emotions

  • internalizing emotions, tendency toward addiction

  • self-judgment about sensitivity being ‘weak’

#4. Sensory Sensitivity

  • strong gut feelings and intuition

  • naturally picking up the richness sensory details provide

  • knowing when something doesn’t feel right

  • deep lovers of music, dance, art, Nature, beauty in all its forms

  • sensitive to medication, alcohol, and caffeine

  • overwhelm by strong smells, sounds, etc,

  • when unaware of all the sensory processing going on can lead to “checking out”

You can see each characteristic brings benefits and challenges. There are many others I have not included. You can read more by checking out Elaine Aron’s work (where I gathered much of the above information for you).

It’s important to note that this is a 100% neutral trait. It is simply the way your organism, your body & nervous system, process information and stimuli.

High Sensitivity is a trait that both extraverts and introverts share, although more introverts than extroverts have this trait.

Even if you are among the 80% of “hardier” constitutions, I encourage you to keep reading as we explore today’s topic…