With 2021 still only in bud, I don’t believe anyone is able to predict what the new year will bring even if we all, of course, wish for the best. Let’s hope a needed change in human hearts, behaviors and mindset will emerge out of all of this for the betterment of the planet and humanity.
As an introvert, 2020 personally wasn’t the worst ever year for me. Dealing with Chronic Fatigue already had me go through the wringer before then when it comes to living with uncertainty, and while it hasn’t been easy working through and processing the pain, powerlessness and fears it brought about, it also yielded emotional and psychological growth and the surprising gift of a deeper sense of peace. In any crisis lies an opportunity as the saying goes: my faith has been tested, but I’m better now and not in survival mode anymore.
I realize that an unprecedented amount of people are struggling right now in various ways and feel like sharing which remedies from my healing toolbox I’ve found the most potent.
For deep-seated or traumatic issues, getting professional help/trauma-informed therapy is highly recommended and often necessary, but to provide yourself a dose of tailormade medicine also has great healing power.
These healing tools are not exclusively for HSPs, of course, but I found these five extra suitable and helpful for steering safely through rough waters as a sensitive soul:
1. SOOTHING SELF-TALK – I’ll put this at the top of the list even if a kind, comforting, and calming way of speaking to oneself can actually be one of the hardest things to learn because it often involves a lot of re-wiring of our brains to unlearn old, ingrained unhelpful, negative or even damaging thought patterns. It is, nevertheless, possible and my favorite tool because nothing regulates a frazzled nervous system better. Practice this every day and all the time; become the loving parent and authority of your inner space and you’ll have a superpower always at hand or rather in mind! Taking ownership of our internal environment like this, besides, tends to start rippling outward and reflect in our external world in beneficial ways.
P.S if you would like someone to model how exactly to do this, I recommend listening to gentle guided meditations: find someone who’s voice resonates with you and who’s words meet your deepest needs. As a sensitive soul, I personally love Joanne from ”Relax for Awhile” (see my Resources Page).
Another helpful resource is Bethany Webster’s great new book “Discovering the Inner Mother or other books on inner child healing.
2. NATURE – cliché as it sounds, it is absolutely true: Mother Nature heals, so make sure to regularly pull away from all the screens; ditch excessively following the News (which rarely focus on good tidings) and the conflicts and dramas on social media and go outside, instead. Get in tune with yourself by going offline: move your body, feel the firm ground or soft grass under your feet, hug a tree or a beloved pet, breathe in the fresh air and receive nature’s pure life force. If you live in the city then bring elements of the natural world to you, in the shape of flowers, plants, rocks, crystals, etc. A little piece of nature is better than none!
3. JOURNALING – a tool renowned, and rightly so, for its ability to sort out muddled thoughts and feelings; bring clarity and awareness to our inner workings. Fears are calmed, gnarly relational dynamics get clearer and emotional knots loosen in the writing process, especially if you express what’s troubling you honestly. Don’t censor yourself but allow the words to flow freely. I recommend doing it at least once a day and when times are disconcerting and things in flux, even more.
4. CREATIVITY – this goes for being the creator as well as being the receiver of various artforms; whatever suits you best. Any kind of art will do, really: read, write, knit, collage, paint, draw, dance, drum, listen to music or sing your heart out: artistic expression is a playful, fun and fabulous medicine with meditative and transformative healing powers.
5. DREAM WORK – exploring your dreams is like learning another language: a rich and emotional language laden with symbolism and imagery which will guide you on a journey where you slowly discover the subjective landscape of your psyche and gain profound insights and wisdom along the way.
There comes a point when you’ll be able to transfer a mastery of the nightly dream-language and put it to use for better understanding the waking reality of your life. At this point, your journey has the potential to become what Elaine N. Aron calls living “A Symbolic Life” which is what she views as one of the hallmark purposes of HSPs.
I also believe that when HSPs are healthy, thriving and confident, many are deep thinkers and visionaries with the potential to be the “Clairs” of humanity: people able to use their astute senses to intuit and feel into subtler realms of existence: to connect what perhaps appears as disjointed dots and discover a profound pattern of interconnectedness – to see the bigger picture.
The HSP body is a finely tuned sensory instrument, and we have the potential to sense what the root cause of many a human malady is, often while simultaneously having the propensity to search for a higher understanding. We tend to dig a little deeper and search a little higher for the answers to our questions.
– decoding our own inner dreamscapes is a good place to start.
These are my top 5 healing tools. There are numerous other tools, of course, and luckily so, but I hope you, like me, find these suggestions helpful.
Mona Kristensen is a Danish author & artist; an intuitive HSP passionate about depth psychology and dream work. She has a keen eye for the subtle ways in which Life speaks to us and a big heart for our inner Wonderchild: a very sensitive, expressive and imaginative part of us which sadly often ends up wounded. Through her work, she aims to mend a bit of this unfortunate damage. Get her book HERE
