This month of beautiful breathing, I thought a lot about being a highly sensitive person. Let me tell you a story about it.
When I was in fourth grade, I ran away from school. I blame it on those damn recorders in music class.
Now, I really liked school, and I really liked my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Nagel. So it wasn’t their fault. I even liked music and music class. It’s just that one week, we started playing recorders in music class, as most elementary school students do, and it got so loud I couldn’t handle it anymore. Noisy students. Yelling. Recorders. Noisy hallways. More noisy students.
I didn’t think much about it, but after music class, I just slipped out the back door of school and walked home, which wasn’t too far away. My parents were running errands that day and weren’t home, and so I went over to my next door neighbor Carol’s house.
Me the Mystery
Of course, I completely failed to understand the panic that would ensue with the school when they realized I was missing. And I completely failed to understand the panic it would cause my parents when the school called them and told them I was missing. Luckily, my neighbor was able to contact the school and my parents, and the mystery was quickly solved.
Well, one mystery was solved. I kind of became a mystery to myself that day. (Quaestio mihi factus sum–I have become a question to myself.*)
I partially realized that day that I get really overwhelmed with loud noise and lots of people and bright lights. That day I began to realize that I get overstimulated really, really easily. I didn’t completely understand why.
Maybe you get overstimulated easily, too.
Highly Sensitive People
It took me a long time to figure that I am a highly sensitive person. This is actually a personality type that has been researched and written about a great deal. You can read more about it here, here, and here (and also here.)
Being a highly sensitive person (HSP) can be great. It often is correlated with gifts like creativity, empathy, and the ability to get along well with others. (About 20% of the population are HSPs. You can read about that here.)
Being a HSP can also be really challenging. HSPs are often prone to anxiety. And because they are so empathetic, they often pick up on everyone else’s emotions and even their physical pains sometimes.
All of this is true for me. I tend to absorb everything that is happening around me, and this is really difficult when there is a lot of stress or negative emotions or conflict or chaos. And if you add a lot of noise, bright light, and heat, well that wipes me out.
Highly Sensitive People and Nature Therapy
And this brings me to the point of this post: breathing and nature.
Several months ago, I realized that my nervous system was on overdrive and constantly overtaxed and overstimulated. This was primarily a result of some positive but major life changes I went through recently.
At the same time, I realized that my breathing patterns were erratic. And I was also experiencing more anxiety than normal. I decided to do a simple breathing exercise three times a day in order to re-calibrate my breathing and, hopefully, calm my nervous system. (You can read more about month one and two of my breathing experiment here and here. And, by the way, my breathing practice is just one of the tools I used to help me with my sensitivity.)
From almost the first day I began my breathing practice, I noticed myself calming down a great deal. I still get overstimulated, and I still get anxious. Those are just aspects of who I am. And they will never go completely away. And it’s okay, I accept them because they are tied to other really good personality traits.
However, my breathing practice is wonderful because it helps me realize that while I can’t control noisy, overstimulating things outside of me completely, I can cultivate a calm, peaceful, and stable space inside of me. This helps a great deal. (And of course I still try to minimize external stimulation.)
When I started to calm down, I also realized that I was able to spend more time outdoors. In the past, it has been hard for me to be outdoors a lot when I feel anxious and overstimulated because bright light and heat makes things worse.
As I began practicing breathing regularly, I realized I had more of a desire to go outside, to be in nature, and to walk. (You can read more about my adventures in nature here).
There is a beautiful arboretum by my house, and I have been walking a lot there. In fact, I have been seeing how far I can walk in one walk. Last month, I walked a ten mile walk. This month, I walked a fourteen mile walk, and I am working on a longer walk right now.
I also went on a hike at a nature sanctuary near my house with my friend, Joanna. And I felt incredibly nourished and calmed by being around so much natural beauty and peacefulness.
And here is what I realized this month of breathing and walking: I need nature. I need trees and flowers and butterflies and birds and time away from cars and machinery and houses and technology.
And there is a legitimate reason for this (not that I need a reason to love being in nature). Research suggests that if you are a highly sensitive person, spending lots of time in nature is one of the best things you can do for yourself. You can read more about this here and here.
There are a lot of reasons why nature benefits HSPs so much. But one of the primary reasons is that green spaces help to calm our nervous system and cultivate a type of meditative state that helps us release negative emotions and connect with the lovely parts of being a HSP—like being creative.
I know for myself, personally, walking helps me come up with so many creative ideas about writing, art, philosophy, and just life in general.
My breathing, walking, and nature practices the last couple of months have reminded me that while there is a lot of stuff in life like politics and violence that are largely outside of our control, there are some pretty basic things that are completely within our control. And these things can make a profound difference in our life.
Stay tuned in August for month four of beautiful breathing.
*****
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This post describes the beginning of my breathing practice:
*St. Augustine
Published by shellypruittjohnson
My name is Shelly Johnson, and I am a writer and philosopher with a Ph.D. in philosophy. One of my primary personal and philosophical interests is how we can learn to love ourselves and each other better in order to cultivate personal and political resilience. I teach ethics and a variety of other courses at a local college. I am the author of the blog Love is Stronger. I am also the author of three logic and critical thinking books for high school and middle school: _Argument Builder_, _Discovery of Deduction_ (co-author), and _Everyday Debate_, published by Classical Academic Press. You can reach me at shellypruittjohnson@gmail.com.
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This is wonderful. I love it. I also love that you celebrate being sensitive. I often feel I am over-sensitive, and have been told once to toughen up. At a particular stage of my life with a particular person, I did have to, and this helped me protect myself, but I wouldn’t want it to spread to other areas.
I really like what you say about spending time outdoors. I love that whatever is happening in my personal life, nature is largely doing its thing as it always has and always will, and my small trials and tribulations are irrelevant.
Oh wow–I really love that idea, Ali, that nature is always just doing its thing, no matter what is going on in our lives. That’s so right. I have been told before that I am over-sensitive, too :(. And just like you, I have had to toughen up, too, in some areas. But I definitely try to hold on to my sensitivity, too. I think it is so important.
I am so glad the walking and breathing continue to do well for you. Amazing! 🙂 That story about fourth grade is funny too – I totally get it with the recorders. That hot cross buns song was ear splitting on the recorder. How worried your parents must have been! It also reminded me of when I was in kindergarten, I used to have to take the city bus to my babysitter’s house after school. One day I was daydreaming so much that I completely missed my stop and just got off the bus at a random place! I went to a stranger’s house and told them my babysitter’s name and they were able to look her up in the yellow pages! She was in hysterics apparently lol so I’m glad we were reunited quickly.
Oh man! Your poor babysitter :). Isn’t it funny the kinds of things we do when we we are little that we don’t realize will totally alarm adults? I liked your story a lot. You were a brave kindergarten child to ride the bus all by yourself!
Well here’s the kicker to this story…. I wasn’t by myself. My brother and sister and all the kids that went to this babysitter were there too! There were just so many kids that one was easy to overlook! Hahaha. Glad you enjoyed the story. Totally agree that some of the things I did as a kid probably gave my parents a heart attack.
Knowing the Highly Sensitive personality has helped me too immensely become comfortable with myself and also an effective parent of HSP. I think our sensitivity is the reason we are able to appreciate the power and beauty of something as subtle as the breath.
I love that, P! I think you are right–breathing is especially important to us because of our sensitivity. Well said.
Sorry it took me so long to read this post. I identify with the feelings you expressed in your post. Being in nature calms me too. I’ve been reading “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster, and in the chapter on simplicity he writes a section about how important it is to be in nature and to notice and connect with it. I go for a roll in the cemetery sometimes to connect with nature, or in Jaquith Park here in our town. I also sit at my kitchen table and enjoy the peaceful view of our back yard with flowers and bushes as I meditate on God’s Word and pray. That is calming to me. I’m glad you are finding creative ways to handle your over-stimulation and stress. I am learning to “let go” and just be. For a task-oriented person like me, sometimes that takes a long time. But at age 70 I’m finally learning.