When a kindergarten teacher suggested to me that my son may be highly sensitive it was a catalyst for many things. Not only did I start to understand my son’s needs better, but I also started to intrinsically understand myself. I learned these five things.
I’m Highly Sensitive
The more I read about being highly sensitive, the more I realized I was reading about characteristics I owned. I am a highly sensitive person.
Me Time is Essential
Highly sensitive people need a lot of downtime. In fact, highly sensitive people need alone time daily, and plenty of it. I had always felt guilty about my need to be alone, to withdraw, especially after becoming a mother. I learned that ‘me time’ is actually essential to my sanity.
Trust My Instinct
My son is quick to pick up when someone is not genuine; he feels when someone says something but means something else. He can read people well and he has a feeling when something isn’t quite right.
I have that too. And he made me understand that I shouldn’t dismiss those feelings.
I am an Emotional Sponge
There were tears in my son’s eyes if another child cried in his preschool class. He felt their emotions and took them on as his own.
I too get upset about other people’s dilemmas. I take on other people’s problems and try to solve them as if they are my own. The result is that I end up feeling frazzled.
Helping my son understand the events he can filter out from his day, what he should let go of, made me realize that I must set my own boundaries too, for the sake of my mental health.
Be True to Myself
Highly sensitive people often feel like square pegs in round holes. Staying true to my own beliefs whilst bending enough to fit in with others around me is a hard ask. That’s something I have learned since becoming a mother.
Highly sensitive boys often don’t live up to society’s expectations of how males should behave. Many boys therefore suppress their natural instinct and feelings. I’ve learned how important it is to help my son be true to himself. And that applies to myself, too.
It takes more strength and courage to stay true to your own feelings rather than follow the crowd.
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