This industry perspective is by leadership coach and artist Natalie Davis.
Sensitive.
It’s a delicate word that brings up a lot of feelings, memories, and possible fears.
As creatives, we may have heard this term a lot over the years, sometimes as a compliment and other times as a dig. Context may help us interpret that label’s tone as adults, reflecting back on our childhood and teenage years.
Being a highly sensitive person takes this label a step further. A highly sensitive person (HSP) has a sensitive nervous system that processes more information, reacting to the environment, emotions, and moods of those around them. This affects 15-20% of the general population, and I suspect within that pool are many creatives, maybe even you.
Curious? Here is a simple quiz by Dr. Elaine Aron to help identify if you have the trait of high sensitivity. I encourage you to pause here and take the short quiz.
If you answered yes to most of the questions, your depth of processing can be a creative superpower. By experiencing deeper levels of sensory information, HSPs can create more nuanced work that plays on different levels. You can take a holistic approach to how these elements weave together and are comfortable zooming in and out of a design problem, tackling both the details and the high-level vision.
As an HSP who manages clients and teams, you likely pick up on subtle cues in social interactions, helping you identify concerns, spot pitfalls, and address issues before they become obstacles. Your deep listening skills create a safe space for team members, allowing for psychological safety and more innovative collaboration. HSPs are excellent at building culture in their workplace and developing close bonds and trust within their teams. Creative HSPs often rise into management roles quickly.
Sounds amazing, right? It can be when you deploy strategies to stay balanced. Keep in mind that with a larger amount of sensory information, it can be very easy to become overstimulated as an HSP. Your energetic bandwidth is used differently than others without this trait. It’s important to be kind to yourself in self-discovery and extend grace around learning your sensory limits and what level of stimulation you can manage. Large music festivals or professional sports arenas might be a nightmare scenario, but a little league game could be just your speed. HSPs must define their boundaries and hold them firmly. Otherwise, you will find yourself depleted and exhausted.
In addition to boundaries, spaciousness is a key strategy to help support yourself. You will need more buffer space in your day to process the avalanche of information, so reconsider rolling calls or back-to-back meetings. Try adding 15-30 minute buffers between commitments and solo decompression time to download thoughts after large or important meetings. Rolling straight into a social event right after a demanding workday doesn’t help you bring your best self. Slowing down and creating breathing room in your calendar can make you both more effective and feel more balanced.
Be curious about your sensitivity, and take time to experiment and figure out what works for you. One key question worth considering is, what helps you hit the reset button? What helps you ground yourself? Is it quiet time reading, listening to music, walking in nature, or playing with your pets? Mindfulness meditation, gardening, or a running practice might offer you moments to recharge. Consider when you feel most calm – this may be when your attention is focused on a single element instead of lots of inputs. Turning down the volume in our busy lives can be the biggest game changer for highly sensitive creatives to thrive.
As a creative HSP and executive coach, I have delved deeply into the research of high sensitivity and personally investigated numerous strategies to stay balanced. I bring those resources to my coaching clients and am continually adding and learning from their experiences as well. Sharing our unique perspective with other HSPs is an affirming and supportive approach to reclaiming the sensitive label as a superpower.
My go-to resources for high sensitivity are Dr. Elaine Aron, Jenn Granneman, and Andre Sólo but there are many. Check out my bookshop.org shop for further reading.
Natalie Davis is a leadership coach and creative professional with 20+ years in the design industry and eight years as an executive coach. She’s driven by her values of curiosity, compassion, and kindness to listen deeply to coaching clients and help them make meaning of their world. Natalie works internationally with clients, including hosting retreats like the Maine Sensory Retreat this coming July.
Images courtesy of the author.
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