Isn’t it a funny title?
Actually no, it’s tragic.

About 10%-15% of all the people (and the higher mammals) are highly sensitive. It’s a fact and we all know this.

The problem is that there is a big misunderstanding about it. Most of the people see HSPs as poor hypersensitive people who always need to hide from the world, and everything is annoying to them. Also, people with low self esteem and many problems.
And this is not just most of the people that think like this, it’s the HSPs themselves who think they are a bunch of problems and nothing else!

And here comes the title.

People you are running with the wrong manual!

The camera they sent to the moon was a Hasselblad 500EL, one of the most powerful photo cameras of it’s time. Specially developed for space travel and for space and moon conditions also adapted for the difficult suits of the astronauts.

Now imagine this camera running with the instruction manual of a cheap camera, let’s say an Instamatic.
The result will be that nobody will be able to use it, they will think that it cannot do anything, not even take pictures, and if the camera had a consciousness would believe that it’s good for nothing therefore had all the reasons in the world to feel depressed and constantly overwhelmed by all the crazy ideas about its abilities that, according to the manual, do not exist.

This is exactly what happened with Highly Sensitive People.

We are people with superpowers, feeling what others cannot, sensing things that don’t exist for usual people, thinking a way that nobody who is not HSP can understand and getting inspired by... well, nothing, according to the non-sensitive.
And this is not enough, we also believe what they tell us we are.

When we were kids, of course we needed more time to develop the complicated system we are running under, so we were not ready to get out and impress anyone.
And of course, the people who had nothing much to develop were coming out like lizards, ready to live and hunt the moment they came out of the egg, looking smart and bullying everyone who was not.

This is the wrong manual, this is the wrong message we got!

So, what are our problems?

1 We feel what other people around us feel. Empathy.
It’s not a problem as such, it’s a real superpower.
It becomes a problem when we take over these feelings like they are ours.
Solution: These problems are not ours, observe them, feel them, support the owner but it’s not your problem. Keep your distance!

2. We get a lot of information from our intuition and inspiration center.
Also not a problem, unless we ask the opinion of people who don’t understand so we have contradicting information.
Our intuition always tells us the truth, if we manage to separate this information from logic, beliefs and obligations running in our mind.
Solution: It’s just a matter of practice and support from a coach to untangle this mess and find out which part is important.

3. Almost nobody believes what we know and understand about the world and what happens around us!
Solution: Simple, we don’t share it, unless we know that they understand or accept our knowledge, or it’s ok for them to disagree with us and respect it.

4. We get overwhelmed by loud noises, much light and too much information.
This is natural, as we look into the world in a profound way, much deeper than the “normal” people, we have much more information than everyone else. Come to think of it, also a superpower.
Solution: Escape, get some rest as much as possible, find an excuse for being alone for 5 minutes, pick up your phone and pretend you have a long phone call so people leave you in peace for 10 minutes, just run to the bathroom if necessary.

There are many “problems” the HSPs have, but if you look at history most of the great things happened by people who were thinking, feeling and sensing just the way you do. Some of them found ways to solve these problems, others just lived with them, some of them even suffered because they didn’t know anything about their sensitivity and the solutions they had. But nothing stopped them from doing great things one way or the other.

Now you have knowledge, lots of articles and books written about you, lots of people ready to help you and lots of simple solution to your “complicated” problems.

Your real manual is out there, and you have it in your hands. Just read it.

Find out how your amazing complicated and very efficient system is working and do your miracles out there.

And of course, ask for help from people who know who you are.

I know, the title sounds strange, I mean how can someone make dreams, plans and wish things for the past? But sit down and think. Yes! Everyone does it and very often.

Making dreams for the past means you work or play with your regrets. All the things you wanted to do back then, and you didn’t. And not only that, often you create brand new dreams, things that you want now, as grownup, but for the time you were kid or teenager.

How many of us would like to have a childhood full of success, to be the most popular in school, in the university, to have the girls/boys we didn’t have back then, to have maybe a rock band, more successful than the Rolling Stones, ok maybe the same successful, let’s not exaggerate.

How many of us want to correct the mistakes of the past, the moment we didn’t dare, the moment we made the wrong movement and took the wrong way, the moment we didn’t face the challenge but listened to the parents, friends, teachers or bullies (sometimes I wonder who is who) and made ourselves small and let the bigger, older, more important get the opportunities.

If you want to understand your sensitivity, the first thing you need to do is to stop reading all these chats from the “so called” Highly Sensitive People. The only thing I found there is a lot of complains about life, lots of dysfunctions and disorders, how the world is a hostile place, how poor they are and how everyone must pity them.
No, HSP is not about this. If you feel this way you have two options, change the way you see your sensitivity or stop reading this text now and go back to your chats.
When we talk about a sensitive device we talk about a tool so powerful that no other tool can function like this. A highly sensitive radio can receive radio signals that normal radios cannot. A highly sensitive film can make pictures in poor light conditions. Of course, if you expose it to much light you are going to burn these pictures. But if you know how to use it you can make pictures where others are getting dark frames.
Would you call this dysfunction? Why do you call your sensitivity dysfunction?
Your sensitivity is your ability to sense, feel and understand things better than others do. You are not unlucky, you are gifted.
I know, nobody asked you to have it. But if you think of it, nobody asked you where to be born, your gender, your nationality or your family. Nobody asked you if you should be born rich or poor, lucky or unlucky. Nobody asked you to be born in general! It just happened, and you are trying to make the best out of it.
So, your sensitivity is a gift to you, or rather a tool that you can use. And believe me, if you learn how to use it, it’s a blessing and a miracle.
So why many are just complaining instead of enjoying this gift? The reason is that they try to understand their sensitivity through the words of people who are not sensitive. Duh! I’m sure that many people who didn’t understand the relativity theory told Einstein that it was nonsense.
So, stop reading all these chats about how poor you are, also stop listening to the people who don’t know who you are.
Choices? Many!
Connect with sensitive people who are open to the positive aspects of your sensitivity, listen only to people who accept you just the way you are without trying to change you or manipulate you.
Explore your abilities and train your mind to be able to use them. Find books and articles that talk about the positive aspect of sensitivity.
Take the first step with me, we can have a friendly half hour chat about sensitivity, examples, problems and solutions.

Love

Antonis

How often do you hear someone asking you a question and immediately you feel uncomfortably? Especially if it has to do with your actions and your life, a question can really hit you like a hammer on the head.
For many people this is a sign that the question is right, touched the right spot etc.

Not for me though!

If you did something and you're not sure if it was right or wrong and someone asks you "why did you do this?" how do you feel? Do you get a kick? Do you feel accused, even though this was not the intention?
Actually when someone asks me "why did you do this?" I always feel there is an accusation there.
One of the most wonderful and powerful books I have read is "Breaking the Rules" by Kurt Wright. In this book he is describing the right question, why it is powerful and useful and will always help you move on.

What is the use of the right question?

The right question will help you move forward, create, feel good, motivate you and give you solutions in the most difficult moments.
The right question will give you the tools for creating effortlessly, whatever you were doing with a lot of struggle will become easy and simple.
The right question will de-activate the analytical and repairing way of thinking and activate the intuitive and creative part. Will take you away from being busy with trying to correct mistakes, something you can keep you busy for all your life, and take you exactly where you can create the solution you want, the attitude you need and the life you always wanted, if you did, by just shifting your point of view.

Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about the secret or any other positive affirmation methods. There is some every day action and way of thinking of us though, that these people took as seeds for this secret and this action and way of thinking is our attitude towards life. Of course you cannot correct it with wishful thinking and magic spells.

Let's see what am I talking about.
Every day we see hear and feel around us a lot of images, words, emotions and ideas and, of course, like every receiver, we tune to the ones that interest us more. Like, for example, a radio receiver has access to many radio stations in different frequencies, but focuses and hears only one every time, the one the user decided to hear.
Same with us, every day we have many sources of information around us, external or internal (internal I mean we feel them directly from the sender and not through his words or expressions) and we pay attention to a few of them. Some we ignore partly, we know they are there but don't really show interest, others like they don't exist.

For example, I check every day many pages about highly sensitive and see what are people posting there. I see people writing about hope, insights, great ideas and powers in every day life but also about something special that happened, let's say, today while others are sharing a great deal of pain and fear about their sensitivity and their "condition". But more interesting are the replies. Most of the replies are in alignment with the post, sharing the same or similar, often competing sharing bigger problems and fears.
Of course I see a few people trying to change the mood and trying to offer a real support, but if you check the likes and the replies, not many pay attention to them.

But for me these are the most interesting.

Many self improvement agents are offering new programs for your mind. New and improved, with many promises for better results, wonderful life, happiness etc.
But are you sure that this is what you need?

First of all if you have old programs running in your head it means that you don't think your original thoughts.
And where did these programs come from? From involuntary affirmations they made you believe. "You are small, you are stupid, you are useless, you don't have the right or the ability", all these things that you were hearing as child made you believe that you are a little creature in a huge universe and you don't have as many rights as you thought when you started thinking.
Do you want more automatic programs coming from new affirmations?

It's absolutely normal for sensitive people to feel emotions from people around them. There are ways though that you avoid suffering.

Normally a sensitive person doesn't suffer with empathy, it's an absolutely normal thing and it can be used also as a tool. But if as a child they were trying to force you to feel certain things or avoiding others, you know, "stop being too sensitive", then you start judging the feelings, either they are yours or not.

Even in these case you can find ways to stop suffering.

1. Don't take over these emotions. They are not yours. Always try to remind it to yourself. You are not guilty if someone feels bad, just see it as an information.

If you love them back or they love you back there is no problem, things are simple, may become more complicated later but this is not the subject of this article.
The "problem" many people face is when someone falls in love with them or they fall in love without response.

To my opinion and my experience there is absolutely no problem with this. Falling in love is the most natural thing in the world and happens all the time all over the world.

The way I see it, if someone falls in love with you this can raise your self-esteem, make you feel good just thinking that there is at least someone in the world who would love to be near you.

I guess you all know the feeling, especially the highly sensitive and this for two reasons, because we feel more and because they know that we feel more.

So let's say that something happens in a moment that you don't feel flexible and one of your plans goes down the drain, let's say facebook rejects some project of yours. And you feel completely helpless, in the mercy of some authority or someone who is in better conditions than you, or so you think.
(The "so you think" is because when someone else feels like a victim they would love to make you feel the same, so they are not in better condition).

There are a few things you can learn to do in these cases, to make things lighter and to be able to get out of this situation fast.

1. Enjoy the feeling. Let's face it, when you feel like a victim all the responsibilities are gone. You are in the hands of fate, or the monstrous victimizer, and you don't have to do anything, just relax in your situation and, of course, your terribly delightful feelings. Of course you remind to yourself that this is not a real situation, but first you have to know it yourself.

Highly sensitive people can easily change their lives, start a new profession or evolve fast using every given opportunity. Of course this happens when they are healthy and didn't develop neuroses from the constant abuse they had as sensitive children.
Of course they can always get rid of them, but this is another story.

But the paradox is that they often complain when things are changing too fast around them so they cannot concentrate.

Of course this does not mean that they cannot function in instability, no matter how much HSPs complain, can always function, can be very efficient, they won't feel good inside them though.

It is a fashion of the last 20 years that became a great life guide especially after the movie and the book "the secret" came out. It is a new age movement with the idea that if you are thinking a positive way you will have positive results.
It is actually twisting the "law of attraction" with an extremely simplistic way (the real law doesn't say anything like this).

What is the philosophy? You just tell yourself that everything is fine and everything will be fine.
Did you ever see this happening? Stuff happens all the time even if the thoughts are extremely positive. I mean people get hurt and die, nobody ever became immortal by thinking positive.

Sometimes when you meet someone, from the first moment you know that this person is going to play a powerful role in your life.

Unlike other cases where your ego tells you to rush, to try hard to contact or get closer to this person, in this case you feel very relaxed. You are not in a hurry, you are not trying hard or playing games to get closer. You feel confident and you know that getting closer is inevitable.

Now this person may become your lover or your spouse, some special friend or will offer you a valuable challenge, an advice or just an inspiration for you life, sometimes without being aware of it.

In order to understand this we have to explain what the brainwave frequencies are . We are talking about the functioning frequency of the brain which varies according to the conditions and/or the type of person.

These are Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta.

Delta 0,5-4 Hz is the state of the deep dreamless sleep, there is no consciousness there, at least not when this is the main wave pattern.
Theta 4-7 Hz, is the REM sleeping condition where dreams appear, or in case of being awake, the very deep relaxing state.
Alpha 7-14 Hz, is the relaxing mode, usually comes immediately when the eyes are closing.
Beta 14->21 Hz is the everyday awake functioning mode, where the brain analyzes, works hard and tries to survive.
In the 2 middle ones the person is more connected with subconscious mind and intuition.

This is a funny question asked by a coach.
Coaching is the best way, today, to bring your real self on the surface, by removing all the additional personalities you had to adopt all these years.
Especially for a highly sensitive person, the non acceptance of your uniqueness made you play roles and keeping some of them as your real personalities. In this case you need more than anyone else to discover your real self and bring him up.

But often this is not enough.

There is a possibility that your real self hasn't seen the light of the sun for many years, most probably since your childhood. So if you bring him up most probably will be shocked because there are not many genuine selves available in this world.
So playing roles and adopt other personalities had some meaning. It was a very good disguise in a costume party!

I have to say that sensitivity had no place in the primitive world. Why that?
Nature needs strength. Physical strength. All the species in order to remain strong in a very competitive environment were always trying to reproduce the genes of the strongest and the most durable and tough.
This way, the world was full of brutal force, even within the species and in many cases this is the way it remains.

When the big males with the unbreakable horns and the strong muscles are fighting for reproduction, there is not space for sensitivity and creativity.

Don't take me wrong, sensitivity doesn't mean weakness, there is strength there and often seems to be brutal. But a sensitive person has another way of thinking and often this strength is not used for brutality.

especially the ones who don't know or they forgot that they are.

Visionary leader is someone who doesn't rely only in analytical knowledge, experience and information to lead. The greatest tools of a visionary leader is intuition, inspiration and love.
A visionary leader doesn't need to push things, doesn't need to command, he/she just leads or shows the way.

Highly Sensitive people make perfect visionary leaders, in fact I'm sure that every real visionary leader in the past, in small or great scale, was HSP.

Many clients are asking me how to deal with their anger. And, as usual, the whole discussion is around the symptom, ignoring the real reason.
And by real reason I don't mean the event or the situation that made someone angry. The real reason has to do with self-confidence, self-esteem and self-evaluation.

Let's start from the beginning, anger is just an emotion. It's not important by itself. Thousands of emotions are passing through us every moment, most of them are just getting evaporated before we are even aware of them.
The non-logical animals also have emotions, fear, joy, anger, desire, but they don't hold on to them. We, with our "logic", are trying to hold on tightly to our emotions. We are also trying to control them. And suddenly, without any warning, we are angry and whatever we try we cannot relax.

In our society we learn that wisdom, or rather smartness is to manage to be someone who you are not. In the family, the school, among friends, in the profession or job, everyone tries to prove that they are someone else. Some role model who's achievements are trying to reach.
But there is a great difference between doing what someone else does and being someone else!

The first time I heard "Highly Sensitive" I also took it wrong, my impression was that they were talking about problematic people who take everything very heavily and are too emotionally. When they told me that I am also one, I was ready to explode, (well, maybe they are not completely wrong).
Slowly I understood the concept and the reasons HSPs are often too emotional.

Okay let's take things from the beginning.
Highly sensitive is someone who can feel, understand or sense much more than most people do. And HSPs are not rare, about 15-20% of the people and many animals share the same attributes.

Dear sensitive,

I'm sure you have noticed that often your thoughts and your ideas sound strange to the people around you. Your parents, your partner, your friends or your boss/employees have no idea what are you talking about, your great inspiration sounds like gibberish and your enthusiasm goes down the drain. Again and again.

But the fact that others don't understand your ideas doesn't mean that your ideas are rubbish, it means only what it looks like, people just don't understand your ideas.

The big question is where these ideas and inspirations are coming from?
Well it's the collective knowledge and wisdom, facts, ideas and insights from everyone, everywhere and every-when. And the reason that they come as random ideas and as flashes in your mind is because that's they way they suppose to come. If they come as words or voices they will be confused with the logical thoughts, or you will have to see a doctor.