Highly sensitive people tend to get easily overwhelmed due to their heightened sensory perception. In this blog, we share tips for recharging your energy!
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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Why Highly Sensitive People Get Exhausted More Frequently
Highly sensitive people; Do you know that sensation when you feel slightly depressed, yet don’t seem to have a reason for it? As a result, you cannot set your mind to do anything productive and feel exhausted all the time. Chances are big that you are running out of energy. Yet, you don’t understand why you seem to get overwhelmed more easily compared to the people around you. Actually, there is a reason for that, and that is the fact that you are highly sensitive.
Although there still needs to be performed more research upon the traits of highly sensitive people, it is scientifically proven that HSP’s show stronger activation of brain regions involved in awareness, empathy, and self-other processing compared to less sensitive people. Accordingly, this means that highly sensitive people react more strongly upon the positive and negative emotions of others. As you can imagine, this can be quite overwhelming, especially when you have been experiencing tough times in life. Your energy tank is running empty, and you need to do something about it ASAP!
Alarm Signals That You Are Running Low On Energy
Knowing that you are more prone to becoming exhausted emotinally, it is good to know the alarm signals of low energy before it is too late. According to this article on Psychology Today, these 9 signs show physical and emotional exhaustion:
- Chronic fatigue
- Insomnia
- Forgetfulness/impaired concentration and attention
- Various physical pain
- Increased illness
- Loss of appetite
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Anger
Do you experience one or more of these symptoms? You might be close to running out of ‘fuel’ and should immediately take action!
What To Do When You Are Drained Of Energy
So you are aware of the fact that your energy level is low and that it is time to change that? Great job! Let’s have a look at some methods that might help you in increasing your energy level:
1. Create An Overview Of The Past, The Present And The Future
One of the first things that might help you to improve your energy level and recharge your energy, is to reflect. Most likely, there were times in your life when you felt at the top. You long back to those days and don’t know what to do to get there. With this free reflection worksheet that we created, you can reflect upon the past, the present and the future. It might be useful in order to get an overview of your situation and to know what to improve. Subsequently, by being aware of your situation, you can take action to change your lifestyle.
2. Ground Yourself
When you are feeling drained of energy, there is a big chance that your body is out of balance and your emotions are all over the place. You might feel that you are carrying other people’s energies/stress with you as well and accordingly feel more anxious, exhausted and easily annoyed. If you are experiencing this, it is crucial to do grounding exercises. In this way, your energy will be balanced and you will feel more at ease. With this 10-minute grounding exercise, you can reset your energies and feel more in touch with yourself again:
3. Meditate
One of the best techniques that I swear by when it comes to maintaining happy and at peace and to recharge your energy, is meditation. In fact, science proves that meditation decreases stress, anxiety & depression and increases positive emotion! As stress, anxiety and depression often go paired with experiencing low energy, you might give meditation a try! One of the most popular apps to meditate is Headspace. In this video, the app is explained:
4. Gratitude
It is a wise lesson that my mom taught me when I was a teenager and feeling slightly depressed:
At the end of each day, write down 5 things from your day that were going well. Even if it was something small as the dinner you ate or that the sun was shining. Write down everything positive from that day. -My mom
Still, I did not do it back then, but I wish I had listened to my mom much earlier. Now, many years later, I realize how important this lesson is when you want to recharge your energy. Gratitude can change your mindset. According to this article, gratitude can open the doors to more relationships, improve your physical and psychological health, enhance empathy and reduce aggression, make you sleep better, improve self-esteem and make you mentally stronger. Sold yet? If yes, I recommend you to download the app Grateful in order to write down your gratitudes. You can find it both in the App store and the Google Play store.
If you’d like to practice gratitude the old fashioned way, you may want to discover the bestselling gratitude journal ‘Good Days Start With Gratitude: A 52 Week Guide To Cultivate An Attitude Of Gratitude: Gratitude Journal’.
5. Treat Yourself
Besides the abovementioned, I highly recommend you to do things that make you happy. I know this is a tough one, because one of the first thing people usually stop doing when they are stressed, are the activities that they love. Most likely, they seem less important and non-productive, but let me tell you one secret: These are the things that actually INCREASE your energy, so why would you stop doing them? Out of guilt? I know I stopped doing things that I loved when I was feeling down, and it felt like a downward spiral. I only did things that drained me of energy, and stopped doing the things that increased my energy. As a result, I felt exhausted to the max!
So, don’t feel guilty about making some time for the things that you love. In need of a spa treatment? Book your appointment! Desperately craving a lazy day on the couch? Just do it! Nobody will judge you, I promise! And I am 100% sure that you will gain energy from it that you later on can use to do some productive chores!
How To Avoid This Situation In The Future
The main thing that I learned throughout the years, is this lesson:
Never forget to take care of yourself and your own needs!
This simple lesson is something that so many people forget. You cannot pour from an empty cup, so don’t forget to recharge your energy on a regular basis! Hopefully, the abovementioned tips can help you with doing just that!
If you’d like to read more about thriving as a highly sensitive person, you may want to discover the book ‘The Highly Sensitive: How to Stop Emotional Overload, Relieve Anxiety, and Eliminate Negative Energy’.
What tips do you have for other highly sensitive people to recharge their energy?
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