Being a highly sensitive person means embracing the full spectrum of emotions, from joy to sadness, and everything in between. It means listening to your intuition, honoring your boundaries, and practicing self-care with compassion and kindness. It means recognizing the beauty and richness that sensitivity brings to your life and embracing it as a precious gift to be cherished and shared with the world.

Are you someone who feels things deeply, paying attention to subtleties that others may overlook? Do you find yourself easily overwhelmed by loud noises, bright lights, or strong emotions? If so, you may be a highly sensitive person (HSP). Let's explore 12 signs that could indicate you're an HSP and how embracing your sensitivity can lead to a life of empowerment and spiritual growth.

As I laid in my bed attempting to drift into sleep, I couldn’t fight this feeling in the pit of my stomach - like the heaviest piece of cement anchoring my body down into the floorboard beneath me. I placed my hand over my heart, attempting to calm the familiar flutter of anxiety that seemed to be my new nightly companion these days. I’ve become accustomed to sleeping with one hand over my heart and one hand over my womb space - as a sort of grounding, protective motion.

There is one teaching in particular that really stuck out to me and that is the second Noble Truth: “there is a cause/origin of suffering”. The Buddha states the cause/origin of all suffering is “grasping” (also sometimes called “attachment”). This could be grasping at a blissful moment that you don’t want to go away or grasping at the way you believe something should or shouldn’t be. As I’ve spent some time really thinking deeply about this, I started to recognize when these little moments of grasping occur throughout the day.

The word “faith” used to make me cringe every time I heard it. I always associated the word with organized religion. I grew up hearing phrases like “keep the faith” and “put your faith in God”. When I left the church and began to go on my journey of seeking a more personal sense of meaning and purpose in my life beyond Christian indoctrination, I found myself pulling further and further away from the various ‘lingo’ of the church. The idea of “surrendering to a higher power” suddenly felt very disempowering.

This shift in mental health has begun influencing the New Age spiritual communities through what is referred to as “doing the work”. Similar to the reclaiming of identities that is happening in niche communities like #audhd, “doing the work” is young, New Age spiritual people’s way of saying that they are placing attention and care on the state of their mental health and taking real steps in their daily lives to improve symptoms (or even heal the root altogether when possible).

Spiritual bypassing is defined as…"A tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks"

There is often a natural disintegration process that happens during an awakening, as life seems to be “turned upside down” and belief systems and conditioning begin to crumble. In this vulnerable state, many people will turn to guidance from teachers, mentors, or self-proclaimed “gurus”. Other people may rebuild their beliefs and conditioning to cater to their personal desires for power and control, developing what one might call a “Guru Superiority Complex”.

In the enchanting tapestry of nature, elemental beings like fairies, gnomes, and elves dwell, weaving magick into the fabric of our existence.