How Can Highly Sensitive People Manage Anxiety?

"Imagine there is a motor inside you. Most people whose motor is too fast experience feelings of anxiety." - Sensitivity expert Julie Bjelland.

She comments more about our sensitive nervous system:

"So we have more activation in the brain mirror neuron system...we literally fire some of the same neurons as someone that we're watching and observing. So that's why have moments where we feel like we're feeling what the other person's feeling. And that's a gift.

"But we also have to be careful about protecting our energy and not merging with everybody all the time. And in the Amygdala we see a lot of activation in the fight flight part of the of the HSP brain. And this can definitely create symptoms of anxiety for sure."

Learn about her free webinars, including: Highly Sensitive People and Anxiety.

See much more in article - How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety When You’re a Highly Sensitive Person.

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Transcript

Introduction speaker  0:00 
Julie Bjelland is a psychotherapist, author and founder of the online community Sensitive Empowerment with resources for highly sensitive people.

Julie Bjelland  0:10  
When sensitive people are supported both in their childhood and as an adult - these are things that can be learned, I definitely had to teach myself these things too - that you can actually thrive even more than people without this trait and really bloom brilliantly. 

Julie Bjelland  0:26  
And that's exciting to me. And that's what I want for you. You can read micro expressions and body language that most miss, this is part of your gift, you're picking up on so much data in the world that others are missing. And that's why it's super important. 

Julie Bjelland  0:45  
I did a podcast episode, I remember talking about the gifts in the workplace, for example. And I've heard a lot of leaders and companies in the field talk about that they're recognizing their sensitive employees, and they're seeing their gifts, and they're actually wanting to benefit from their gifts, because the HSP is picking up on stuff that they're missing. 

Julie Bjelland  1:07  
So we have a deeper processing and more awareness, we, if you think about the nervous system is having is like a container. And a person without this trait might just be putting a few cups of information into that container. But a sensitive person might be putting hundreds of cups into that container of information. 

Julie Bjelland  1:27  
And that's stuff we have to process. That's why we can get overwhelmed if we're not getting enough downtime to process all that information. We have more awareness. In general, we have parts of our brain that give us more awareness in general, both internal awareness and external awareness. We have an intuitive, deeper knowing we really do. The intuitive part is very strong in HSPs, especially when you balance your nervous system. And you can use that as a gift in your life. 

Julie Bjelland  1:55  
And as I said, we try hard to get things done the right time. Can you imagine I mean, the first time can you imagine a world without HSPs just double and triple checking things to make sure they're done, right. This is why we're needed. This is a big part of why we're needed. And there's so many other reasons. 

Julie Bjelland  2:12  
And we also have faster responses to therapeutic interventions, like brain training, for example. I find it incredible that I used to work with both people with the trait and those without. And I was always completely stunned at how fast HSPs would pick up on different forms of self tools, and therapeutic interventions. Really amazing to me, an HSP could pick up on something and grasp it within a week or two, that would take somebody without this trait months if they could do it at all. And that is something that I saw over and over again, globally. 

Julie Bjelland  2:54  
We have brain differences. There's more activation in the insula, this is what gives us that that's the seat of consciousness, but we have so much awareness. And that can help a lot. We're often aware of things before they even show up on tests like in, in medical stuff, for example, in our body awareness for what we're experiencing how we feel about things, intuitive stuff, are we picking up on energy, maybe this person is somebody we trust, maybe they're not, these are things that are actually important parts of who we are. 

Julie Bjelland  3:24  
So we have more activation in the brain mirror neuron system, this, we literally fire some of the same neurons as someone that we're watching and observing. So that's why we often feel we really feel like we have moments where we feel like we're feeling what the other person's feeling. And that's a that's a gift. 

Julie Bjelland  3:45  
But we also have to be careful about protecting our energy and not merging with everybody all the time. And then Magdala we see a lot of activation in the fight flight part of the of the HSP brain. And this can definitely create symptoms of anxiety for sure. And we'll be talking more about this. 

Julie Bjelland  4:06  
So common symptoms of anxiety, feeling nervous, restless, tense, increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, trembling, trouble concentrating, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, a lot of stomach issues. It's fascinating why that is because if we're activating that fight flight system, the brain actually sends signals to turn off digestion, because it is not considered to be needed. 

Julie Bjelland  4:34  
If you are, you know, in fight flight mode because the brain cannot tell the difference between a real threat and a perceived threat. So even if you're just really stressed, or you're being self critical, you're even releasing stress chemicals and hormones into the body and sending signals to your brain that you know a lion is about to attack you. So that's what the brain is interpreting so it's gonna shut down the digestion and that's going to actually change how your body uses oxygen in fact, that's why it puts oxygen into your muscles. So you get that tense feeling and it you know, to be able to ready to fight or flee 

Julie Bjelland  5:14  
So, we need to prevent this overreaction every single time. I used to live in a lot of HSPs do in a state where the fight flight was activated on a daily basis. That's a really really hard way to live. And one of the reasons I'm so passionate about this, you know, being able to teach you guys this and tools that can help you

Introduction speaker  5:40  
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