Therapy For Highly Sensitive Creative People
What if I were highly sensitive to the world around me; to the thoughts, feelings and actions of everyone in my environment? What if I wanted to express myself in this world, but the responses from others just felt too overwhelming? What if I want to share my art with the world, but the sensitivity within me is just too anxious? I will share with you how I have learned and am still learning to share the deepest essence of me through my creativity.
“Highly Sensitive Persons Have Been Found to Possess Higher Sensitivity to Social and Emotional Cues”
Although I don’t remember exactly where I gathered this quote from, I would like to give credit to the original writer.
I wondered when I first met my former husband how he could breeze so easily through a conversation without picking up on the other person’s emotional and social cues. It sometimes made me so uncomfortable, especially when he was drinking, that I had to walk away. I would ask him about it later and he would seem unconscious to what the other person was experiencing. I had to navigate this carefully in the first years of our relationship, often just avoiding situations where I knew this would occur.
I would tell him that a person was uncomfortable when he said something or acted in a certain way and he would respond with something like, “No, they were fine” or “you’re reading into it too much”. In response, I stopped saying anything, but tried to distance myself from situations where I knew this would occur.
I honestly didn’t understand how he could not feel it. It seemed that we lay on opposite ends of the social and emotional sensitivity spectrum.
Whether it’s a blessing or a hindrance to be so highly sensitive, I do not know, but let’s look further into it.
I Feel That Highly Sensitive People Can Access a Creativity That Touches the Hearts of Humanity
If I were highly sensitive to everyone and everything around me, how would I experience the world differently than those who are not? If I can feel a tree’s heartbeat when I walk by, or a whisper from the fish in the water, can I know how to touch those beings with my heart? Can I know that love permeates everything and everyone at all times?
The raindrops are echoing through the walls today as I am writing, releasing my need to make sense of it all. I love rain. I love how it cleanses my emotional pain. I am sensitive to the rain and the energy it brings. I am sensitive to the wind and the trees and the ocean. The forest, and the beauty that lies within it, so gently creates in a way that we could only hope to understand.
Being highly sensitive, we can access a consciousness that touches the hearts of all beings. This also allows for the creative possibilities to unfold in this deeper awareness. If we access that consciousness within us that connects to all things, and it allows us to see the creativity that lies within, the creations that spring forth from that should touch the hearts of all beings.
Deep within the walls of our consciousness, is there a longing to create?
Are Highly Sensitive People Creative?
First I must say that I think all beings are creative. It doesn’t matter what area of creativity we are engaging in, the act of living in itself is creative.
If highly sensitive people can access a deeper consciousness, their art will reflect this. A very healthy way for highly sensitive people to emotionally engage is through creating art. But when we express this on a stage or in a gallery or in any space where we are sharing our creativity, we often need to communicate with the audience. This aspect of the creative process can become touch and go for a highly sensitive person.
It is very common to see a performer or an artist be very expressive during a performance or in the act of creation, but become very shy and quiet in a social environment. It doesn’t matter if the audience is encouraging or criticizing our art while we are in the act of creation or performance. If we are fully engaged in the act of creating, and our sensitivity is immersed in that, we don’t mind the audience’s emotions because we are not focused there. But when we walk out of that arena or off of that stage, all of the emotional and social cues will trigger our sensitivity once again. What does that mean to my emotional state and how do I manage that as a highly sensitive individual?
Ultimately, If I am highly sensitive to the power of grace within me, that will express through me as an excitement for life and living in the world. If I can access this consciousness of grace within me, it will speak through me and act through me when needed. As this power of grace creates through us, it is also speaking, acting and communicating with others through us.
It is a power that will access the consciousness of all living beings, and we just need to allow it to express. I walk with grace in my life because I know that my sensitivity is a powerful relationship with the hearts of all beings.
We can learn to live in a way that all of life becomes our highly sensitive creative expression. There may be times when we need to step away from the overstimulation of a crowd of people. Walking in nature, taking time for ourselves and honoring these feelings is nurturing and exceptionally beneficial.
There are also people who avoid the stage or creating all together because the fear of the audience’s reaction is greater than the immersion in the creative expression. These are the feelings I explored within myself in my book, Overcoming Performance Anxiety. When we have an emotional reaction to someone or something, there is ultimately only one way to calm that, and that is through the grace of God. There are many different methods we can utilize and they are all very helpful, but the relief we feel is always attributed to grace.
The creativity that we can access as a highly sensitive being is powerful and can touch the hearts of all beings, and we may need to learn to navigate our emotional sensitivity throughout this process.
This is where the conversation about therapeutic modalities may come into play.
What Type of Therapy is Best for a Highly Sensitive Person?
I will start by saying that I don’t believe the modality itself is as important as the person who is practicing it. We need to find someone who is sensitive to our needs as a highly sensitive person. We need someone who doesn’t give us strict guidelines about how our healing should take place.
We should seek out therapies that are gentle in nature and can flow with each moment, giving us time to nurture each feeling, and allow it to unfold gracefully with love. I understand myself gently, so I need someone who will help me to unwrap my feelings gently.
When I find my therapist, they need to be in alignment with the All That Is. They need to feel grace within their heart. They need to see me as a being of divine love.
Luckily, for those of us who do feel that we have a highly sensitive personality, seeing these traits in a therapist would come pretty easily. There are a lot of gentle, loving, kind therapists in the world. Find the one that works for you.
Overcoming Creative Blocks as a Highly Sensitive Artist
When we are a highly sensitive artist, we expect life to give us what we need in every moment because we are conscious of the flow that runs through all of life. If I can create something that creates a better world, and I know that I am pure in that creative process, my life is flowing and my creativity unfolds.
However, when I am feeling a creative block, I must look at where that flow has been stopped. If I were open to the flow, it wouldn’t feel stuck.
If I act like I am caught in a trap and subject to the whims of the captor, I will edit my behavior to not be harmed or to get away. As highly sensitive individuals, we become acutely aware of the traps others are setting around us. As a highly sensitive creative, I may not be willing to trip these traps with my creative expressions. I may edit my pure voice so as not to be trapped.
Said another way, if I have the ability to create something so beautiful and pure that it flows with all of life, but I am aware that not all of life is flowing in that way, I may feel that I have to revise my expression to stay safe.
By sitting and quietly observing the place within me that is stuck, can I ask myself if I am afraid to express what I truly am? Can I express myself deeply and encourage others to do the same by not holding back, by not being afraid? If I really ask what my creative blocks are about, am I trying to edit myself for the “world”? Do I feel unsafe allowing the pure flow of creative expression to unfold?
If I am ready to express myself, I have to trust that the divine is holding me in her perfect light and all is safe in the world.
A good question to ask myself is, “am I really blocked or am I editing myself for the world?”. True expression comes from the heart of the divine. If we surrender to that expression and release the fear of the world, it should start to flow.
When I walk in the path of the truth of my own divine calling and I am certain that my mind is in alignment with the mind of God, I will awaken the truth in others as well. I haven’t been able to sanctify my own longing for the divine because my mind has been in fear of what others will say or how they will react. So I somehow have to release the fear and come into alignment with my truest divine self.
If I were awake in love and realized that my sensitivity is pure and divine, I wouldn’t wonder how much I am affecting others as much as I would wonder if I am in alignment with my inner truest self. This leaves me in a state of awe because being highly sensitive gives me direct access to the wonder and joy of life.
It is a gift to be highly sensitive spiritually and creatively and we can tap into this creativity by allowing ourselves access to our inner world of truth.
I offer Shakti therapy Sessions to help people work through these blocks as a highly sensitive artist and creative. This is obviously a subject that is very close to my heart and I enjoy working with people through these feelings so that they are free to create.
If you would like to learn more about Shakti Therapy Sessions, click the link below.
Conclusion
If I awaken to the world around me and all of its divine, beautiful play of life, I can easily access a place within me that feels comfortable creating within my sensitivity. I can become more aware of what is happening inside of me and express it gracefully.
If you need help navigating these feelings, therapists are like angels on our path, guiding us forward gently.
Finding a therapist is a gentle maneuvering of time and space. Tune in to these ideas in the days to come and as you do and become more in alignment with the grace within them, ask the divine to give you the therapist that you need at this time. This is when we tune in to our miraculous, highly sensitive beingness and let the gifts of grace flow into our life.
You are a miraculous being. Being highly sensitive is a very special gift, and your artistic expression can touch the world with a very powerful and delicate grace.
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Hi! I’m Kai Shanti
I live my life in the realms of the shakti kundalini energy, sharing group & private sessions, music for the soul, thoughts on performance anxiety and much more.
Therapy for Highly Sensitive Creative People