How can we rise up as Highly Sensitive People?

Rising up can mean different things to us at different times depending on where we are on our journey in this life.

Whether it’s conflicts (personal or worldly), sensory overload, criticism, loss… finding the courage and the strength to keep rising up can take all of our energy leaving us very little to spend on anything else.

Maybe, like me, you’ve also fallen down more times than you can count.

As Highly Sensitive People when we fall so often we can feel like we just don’t have the emotional, spiritual, and physical energy to keep getting up.

Yes there are lessons to be learned from each fall but that doesn’t make the hurt any less painful.

Thich Nhat Hanh says in No Mud, No Lotus:
“Both suffering and happiness are of an organic nature, which means they are both transitory; they are always changing. The flower, when it wilts, becomes the compost. The compost can help grow a flower again. Happiness is also organic and impermanent by nature. It can become suffering and suffering can become happiness again.”

But what can we do when we’re IN the thick of it?

How can we begin to see the light at the other side of our suffering?

1. First, acknowledge, don’t deny, what you are feeling. When we hide our emotions and feelings they stay with us, they get stuck in our minds, our thoughts, our bodies. When we validate what we are experiencing- even if it’s only to ourselves- we can begin to release our suffering.
2. Second, BREATHE. Our energy (Prana) is controlled and revitalized by our breath. Simply by noticing and giving our whole attention to our breath we can begin to bring ourselves back from overwhelm and suffering. Everything we feel and experience begins and ends with our breath.
3. Third, ask yourself questions. Have I suffered before? How did I get through it? What did I learn from that experience? What am I truly afraid of? (Sit with this one a while…the answer may surprise you!) What do I need to do today to rise up again?

The next time you fall take your time, exercise self-compassion, and know that no matter how many times it happens you have the ability to get up again and face anything.