Books for Highly Sensitive People
The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
by Elaine N. AronReview from Amazon:
Are you an HSP? Are you easily overwhelmed by stimuli? Affected by other people's moods? Easily startled? Do you need to withdraw during busy times to a private, quiet place? Do you get nervous or shaky if someone is observing you or competing with you? HSP, shorthand for "highly sensitive person," describes 15 to 20 percent of the population. Being sensitive is a normal trait--nothing defective about it. But you may not realize that, because society rewards the outgoing personality and treats shyness and sensitivity as something to be overcome. According to author Elaine Aron (herself an HSP), sensitive people have the unusual ability to sense subtleties, spot or avoid errors, concentrate deeply, and delve deeply. This book helps HSP's to understand themselves and their sensitive trait and its impact on personal history, career, relationships, and inner life. The book offers advice for typical problems. For example, you learn strategies for coping with over arousal, overcoming social discomfort, being in love relationships, managing job challenges, and much more. The author covers a lot of material clearly, in an approachable style, using case studies, self-tests, and exercises to bring the information home. The book is essential for you if you are an HSP--you'll learn a lot about yourself. It's also useful for people in a relationship with an HSP. --Joan Price
__________________________________________________________________________________________________The Highly Sensitive Person's Workbook: The Practical Guide for Highly Sensitive People and HSP Support Groups
by Elaine N. AronReview from Amazon:
Can 1.2 billion exceptionally nervous nervous systems be wrong? No way, says depth psychologist Elaine Aron, best selling author of The Highly Sensitive Person. An HSP herself, Aron is also the reigning expert on the subject, and this workbook exists to make you a more helpful expert on yourself. It can be read in conjunction with her more narrative book--the chapter headings match--or without it. "You should use this workbook in any way you darn well please," says Aron in a typical free-yourself comment.
So what is an HSP? Aron thinks one-fifth of humanity is born with more finely tuned perceptions than the rest. In primitive times, HSP's were the first to spot the lion lurking in the bush, the last to shoot the arrow--and the likeliest to hit the lion in one shot. Later, HSP's became the tempering priestly advisors to the more aggressive warrior kings. To be an HSP is a challenge and an opportunity, she argues. This book contains self-tests to determine whether you're an HSP, and if so, which kind: introverted, extroverted, sensation seeking, and other plausible categories. Some HSP's yearn for "earlids" to shut out sound, for instance. There are plenty of blanks to fill in as you analyze your childhood, health concerns, work history, and psychic wounds, with plenty of guidance on how to do it--sample entries as intriguing as someone else's diary. If you've ever wished you could go back and retort to somebody who said something hurtful that made you speechless, Aron has the exercise to channel your resentment into insight. She gives a quick course in dream analysis (Freud couldn't outdo her job on a dream about The A-Team's Mr. T and a tiger), and rather boldly invites you to envision and prepare for your death. There's also a practical guide to setting up HSP discussion groups with enough structure to prevent fizzle and poor focus.___________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Highly Sensitive Person in Love: Understanding and Managing Relationships When the World Overwhelms You
by Elaine N., Ph.D. Aron
Review from Amazon:
Picking up where The Highly Sensitive Person left off, The Highly Sensitive Person in Love explores the sometimes bumpy but ultimately rewarding terrain that love relationships have to offer this group of people. HSP's, as they are known, make up the estimated 15 to 20 percent of the population that have very sensitive nervous system and are prone to deep reflection and feelings of being overwhelmed by the world. These special characteristics, which tend to be misunderstood as shyness and dismissed as signs of weakness in our highly competitive society, inevitably bring interesting challenges to all kinds of love relationships for HSP's. Author Elaine Aron--who's a psychotherapist, researcher, and an HSP--delves deep to into the subject and surfaces with detailed, helpful, wise advice for HSP's and their partners, be they fellow HSP's or non-HSP's.
Aron details the positive and negative sides to such relationships, including how the HSP benefits, how both members of the relationship benefit, the typical challenges that arise, and solutions to those challenges. For instance, a relationship made up of two HSP's may engender low levels of arousal, or awareness, which means that both of you will avoid doing the same things that make you uncomfortable, such as shopping, dealing with conflict, and being in crowds. Solution? Simplify your life, see if you can hire someone to take care of the tasks neither of you wants to do--but don't forget that doing such tasks is also a way to grow personally--and divvy up the tasks according to preference. As for conflict, Aron says that having a plan of action is the best route--decide how to handle conflict in the relationship before the conflict flares up. Another reality of an HSP-HSP union is that neither person will be able to max out on work and expect to have a decent home life, so at least one of you will have to limit activities. So, plan not to have more than one child if you both work (it may be too late for some couples to put this one into action; if so, Aron advises that one parent stay at home).Throughout the book, Aron stresses that being in a relationship is a "package deal"; neither the HSP nor the non-HSP is perfect, so she urges readers to appreciate the positive aspects of their sensitivity, be it highly sensitive or not, and not to dwell on its drawbacks. But she does urge HSP's who are unhappy with their trait to work on coming to terms with it--through inner work, counseling, or medication if needed--as its qualities, when properly appreciated, can be life enhancing and beneficial to HSP's as well as to their relationship partners. --Stefanie Durbin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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The Highly Sensitive Child: Helping Our Children Thrive When the World Overwhelms Them
by Elaine N., Phd AronReview from Amazon:
Book Description
The best selling author and psychologist whose books have topped 240,000 copies in print now addresses the trait of “high sensitivity” in children–and offers a breakthrough parenting guidebook for highly sensitive children and their caregivers.With the publication of The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron became the first person to identify the inborn trait of “high sensitivity” and to show how it affects the lives of those who possess it. Up to 20 percent of the population is born highly sensitive, and now in The Highly Sensitive Child, Aron shifts her focus to highly sensitive children, who share the same characteristics as highly sensitive adults and thus face unique challenges as they grow up.
Rooted in Aron’s years of experience as a psychotherapist and her original research on child temperament, The Highly Sensitive Child shows how HSCs are born deeply reflective, sensitive to the subtle, and easily overwhelmed. These qualities can make for smart, conscientious, creative children, but with the wrong parenting or schooling, they can become unusually shy or timid, or begin acting out. Few parents and teachers understand where this behavior comes from–and as a result, HSCs are often mislabeled as overly inhibited, fearful, or “fussy,”or classified as “problem children” (and in some cases, misdiagnosed with disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder). But raised with proper understanding and care, HSCs are no more prone to these problems than nonsensitive children and can grow up to be happy, healthy, well-adjusted adults.
In this pioneering work, parents will find helpful self-tests and case studies to help them understand their HSC, along with thorough advice on:
• The challenges of raising an highly sensitive child• The four keys to successfully parenting an HSC
• How to soothe highly sensitive infants
• Helping sensitive children survive in a not-so-sensitive world
• Making school and friendships enjoyable
With chapters addressing the needs of specific age groups, from newborns through teens, The Highly Sensitive Child delivers warmhearted, timely information for parents, teachers, and the sensitive children in their lives.
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The Sensitive Person's Survival Guide: An Alternative Health Answer to Emotional Sensitivity & Depression
by Kyra Mesich, Carol L. PhilpotReview from Amazon:
“The Sensitive Person's Survival Guide is an outstanding contribution to body-mind healing and has our highest recommendation. Dr. Mesich explains the relationship between emotional sensitivity and psychic awareness in clear, accessible language, showing that such abilities should not be discredited but rather developed as genuine gifts.”—Patricia Kaminski, Executive Director, The Flower Essence Society The Sensitive Person's Survival Guide presents a radically new way of looking at emotional sensitivity, chronic depression and anxiety. Through her own experiences and courageous research, Dr. Kyra Mesich, a traditionally-trained psychologist, found that psychic sensitivity is the underlying key to understanding emotional sensitivity. Dr. Mesich focuses on empathic ability (also known as psychic feeling), which is the ability to literally feel other people’s emotional experiences. This misunderstood ability often results in recurrent depression, anxiety and the painful aspects of emotional sensitivity due in part to society’s denial and repression of the existence of psychic phenomena. With simple, down-to-earth language and examples, The Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide demystifies empathic ability and explains the relationship between emotional sensitivity and psychic sensitivity. Readers learn specific alternative health remedies and practices to immediately implement in their own lives to rebalance their sensitivity and reconnect with their empathic ability. Armed with this knowledge, readers will experience relief from mysterious lifelong emotional suffering and turn their sensitivity into strength and joy! “People suffer in countless ways from their sensitivity, depression being the most common, and most are never properly diagnosed, only medicated. The Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide gave me a ray of hope that the day is coming when the maladies of empathic people will be taken seriously and treated in a more realistic way.”—Echo Bodine, author of Echoes of the Soul.
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The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World
by Marti Olsen LaneyReview from Amazon:
Do you "zone out" if too much is going on? Are you energized by spending time alone? In meetings, do you need to be asked for your opinions and ideas? Do you tend to notice details that other people miss? Is your ideal celebration a small get-together, rather than a big party? Do you often feel like a tortoise surrounded by hares?
The good news is, you're an introvert. The better new is that by celebrating the inner strengths and uniqueness of being an "innie," The Introvert Advantage shows introverts, and the extroverts who love them, how to work with instead of against their temperament to enjoy a well-lived life. Covering relationships, parenting -- including parenting the introverted child -- socializing, and the workplace, here are coping strategies, tactics for managing energy, and hundreds of valuable tips for not only surviving but truly thriving in an extrovert world.______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appreciating the Trait of High Sensitivity [UNABRIDGED]
by Elaine Aron, Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D.Review from Amazon:
The trait of high sensitivity, is a trait which is known from substantial research to be inherited by about 15 to 20% of the population. This trait is the subject of Elaine Aron's book, The Highly Sensitive Person, which has sold over 150,000 copies. This tape will introduce the subject to those who have not read the book and will reinforce the book's contents for those who have.
On this tape Dr. Aron discusses sensitivity as an inherited trait, stimulation/arousal differences, culture and the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), the spiritual aspect, scientific explanations, practical aspects, and points about childhood.______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight: What to Do If You Are Sensory Defensive in an Overstimulating World
by Sharon HellerReview from Amazon:
Everyone knows how it feels to be annoyed by loud music, accosted by overly bright lights, bothered by crowds, and overwhelmed by a world that moves too quickly. Most people are able to ignore irritating sensations and focus on the task at hand. But millions of people, as much as 15 percent of the population, can't tune out harmless sensations, and instead react to them with irritation, anger, and alarm, and may even experience pain. As developmental psychologist Sharon Heller explains in this important new book, they suffer from sensory defensiveness and desperately need help coping.
Heller, who is sensory defensive herself, brings both personal and professional perspective to bear. Sensory defensiveness, she points out, can mimic, result in, or exaggerate many psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, panic disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive behavior, or anorexia. Sufferers often go through years of psychotherapy, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety medication with little or no relief from the constant tension as sensations from their environment hinder and overwhelm them in their daily lives, often dramatically. Now, with Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight, sufferers and those who love them can better understand this easily misdiagnosed condition and learn what they can do to enhance quality of life. Your world may be Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight, but through a holistic treatment approach that includes sensorimotor strategies from occupational therapy, along with interventions from many other disciplines, it is possible to make a difficult condition far easier to endure.
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Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto
by Anneli S. RufusReview from Amazon:
Isaac Newton. Michelangelo. Anne Rice. Barry Bonds. Haruki Murakami. They and countless others belong to a subculture that will never join hands, a group whose voices, by nature, will never form a chorus. They are loners—and they have at least one thing in common: They keep to themselves. And they like it that way.
Self-reliant, each loner swims alone through a social world—a world of teams, troops and groups—that scorns and misunderstands those who stand apart. Everywhere from newspapers to playgrounds, loners are accused of being crazy, cold, stuck-up, standoffish, selfish, sad, bad, secretive and lonely—and, of course, serial killers. Loners, however, know better than anyone how to entertain themselves—and how to contemplate and to create. They have a knack for imagination, concentration, inner discipline, and invention—a talent for not being bored.Too often, loners buy into society’s messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true nature—and hiding from it. In Party of One, Anneli Rufus delivers a long-overdue argument in praise of loners. Assembling evidence from diverse arenas of culture, Rufus recognizes loners as a vital force in world civilization rather than damaged goods who need to be "fixed." A compelling, morally urgent tour de force, Party of One rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, and that the only experiences that matter are shared ones.
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Are You Really Too Sensitive?: How to Understand and Develop Your Sensitivity As the Strength It Is
by Marcy CalhounReview from Amazon:
A book for ultra-sensitives (psychics). Ultra-sensitives are people who deeply and lovelingly care about the world we live in and are in tune with the world around them. They often have problems being too sensitive and need to learn how to filter out most of the negativity or emotional bombardment that we deal with in life until they are strong enough to no longer need protection. At that time they are living in a state of unconditional love, without judgment or need to change things. Until that time, this book can be very helpful in providing techniques to help us survive in our world.
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Making Work Work for Highly Sensitive People
by Barrie S. Jaeger, Elaine Aron (Foreword)Review from Amazon:
A practical guide to coping at work
Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person builds on Elaine Aron's groundbreaking bestseller The Highly Sensitive Person.
This new book, which includes a Foreword by Aron, gives highly sensitive persons (HSPs) strategies to build confidence, combat stress, and find work that is emotionally, financially, and creatively rewarding.
Based on cutting-edge medical and scientific research, this fresh perspective on how readers can secure satisfying careers includes strategies to:
Detect jobs that are not right for HSPs
Make their opinions heard and valued
Control good personal internal boundaries
Defend themselves from bullies in the workplace
Move out of a job that feels like drudgery, and into a job that supports career goals and dreams________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Empowered by Empathy : 25 Ways to Fly in Spirit
by Rose RosetreeReview from Amazon:
An estimated one in 20 Americans has a natural talent for perceptiveness. Could you be one of them? Usually they are unskilled empaths, which means they suffer from such problems as emotional instability, apparent co-dependence, low self-esteem, or hypochondria. Rose Rosetree’s seventh book, Empowered by Empathy, explains how to improve the quality of life by turning off unwanted empathy.
Her how-to techniques also demonstrate how to turn empathy on. At will. Bigger than ever before. Interspersed with her teaching, Rosetree describes elusive spiritual travels that are sometimes humorous, sometimes moving, and consistently mind-boggling. The cover, for instance, demonstrates “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” an outrageously simple method to move an empath’s conscious awareness into the physical body of a consenting partner. An example of one of Rosetree’s wild but true anecdotes? Read how she inadvertently outed a spy--see page 134. Yes, you can learn to experience vividly, from the inside, what it is like to be another person. The author, a teacher of personal development since 1971, has tested these techniques. Use them and they will alter your reality (for the better).Rosetree’s pioneering discoveries will also revolutionize how you understand empathy. You’ll learn why it happens and how it goes far beyond “Emotional Intelligence” or “sympathy.” True empathy, you’ll discover, comes in many varieties, including physical, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional gifts. Although an increasing number of authors today discuss empathy, Rosetree is the one who will satisfy you if you’re really an empath. The depth and scope of her work will bring you relief. Yes, relief is not too strong a word for the rare chance to meet a skilled empath who understands your gifts and can teach you how to make them work for you.
Could you be an empath? Three tests near the start of the book will help you find out. Then you’ll learn Rosetree’s 25 ways to Fly in Spirit. Plus a great deal more. Pay special attention to the chapter on “Grounding,” with its insights into smoking, weight-loss, and more—counter-culture but absolutely on target.
And, as always with any book by Rosetree, you’re in for a treat just because the writing is so good. Between the covers of Empowered by Empathy you’ll find powerful words, directed with caring intent, and sparkling with Rosetree’s honesty, insight, surprises, and irrepressible humor. America’s first book ever for empaths can empower you to be of greater service to others. With less suffering and more skill. Consider yourself invited.