Continuing my thoughts from my last post on day two, when it comes to space, it feels different outside.
Outside, the energy of people seems to dissipate into the atmosphere and it’s easier to just breathe.
Easier to find myself and to lose myself … in all the best ways.
It seems, wherever I am outside, a bird is laying forth a song. I might not know what type of bird, but the song is always beautiful.
Even in the summer, with the weather far warmer than I would prefer, sitting outdoors brings a measure of peace and tranquility.
As a highly sensitive person with the depth of processing that comes naturally to us, I would think that the outdoors would have the opposite effect.
After all, there is so much to see and to feel and to hear.
But I find myself healing, recharging, and naturally breathing more deeply when I step outside. One reason, I think, is that although HSPs do process everything more deeply than average, what takes up a lot of our emotional energy include things like:
- Processing conversations
- Reflecting on nuances in other people’s words, reactions, and body language
- Dealing with harsh and sudden noises and (unnatural) sounds
- Sifting through information to make everyday decisions
All these can tally up to an exhausting amount of mental input and output!
But outdoors, highly sensitive people can enjoy a more passive variety of input. Like hearing a birdsong, or watching clouds form and drift past.
Our own thoughts have the chance to also drift and wander without needing to actively process the information. We are familiar with the song of the bird or the trickle of a rushing stream.
Even though other sounds might be audible, such as the steady din of traffic in the distance, they do not overwhelm us because they remain in the background.
If you are a highly sensitive person, try to spend some time in nature each day. As I continue my 40-day journey toward healthier living, this is something I choose to do.
Even five, ten, fifteen minutes in the morning, breathing in peace. Or in the evening, passively sifting through the events of the day and letting them settle.
May your day be filled with the peace of nature.
The Highly Sensitive Introvert 