On a regular basis, we share stories from highly sensitive people. In this story highly sensitive Nikki shares her story about the importance of a tidy home.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
There Are Many Things HSP’s Can’t Control
I can’t remember when I found out that I am highly sensitive. In fact, I don’t know if I actually am a HSP, or if there is more behind it. I have no idea, but I know for sure that I feel highly sensitive. Also, I am quite introverted, which does not make life easier for me.
As you probably know by now, there are a number of characteristics that are common in highly sensitive people. Often, we have no control over the input we receive from our environment. Whether it are loud sounds, bright lights, strong smells, violence in the news or clothing that irritates your skin and is not comfortable: sometimes it is terribly difficult to do something about it. We simply cannot control it. But we can deal with some things as highly sensitive individuals. For example our houses and the rooms inside them.
Why A Tidy Home Is Important
We have the choice to consciously make something of our homes that makes us feel comfortable. It is our safe temple in a busy world; a place where we can recharge and where we can relax after a tough day. This does not only apply to highly sensitive people, but to everyone.
A tidy house is one of those things that assures this comfortable feeling. If your house is a mess, you might feel like a mess from the inside as well. This restless feeling results in relaxation becoming more difficult. Mess inside the house is extra stimuli, which again results in that we experience stress and feel overwhelmed. This often applies to everyone, also the less sensitive ones, but for a highly sensitive person this can be extra challenging.
Overcoming Fears And Setting Boundaries
I experienced this myself. To elaborate, I occasionally suffer from depressive periods in which I often leave things around the house. I do not really tidy up in those periods, which again causes me to have to process more stimuli. Often, I have no energy for that, which again results in a longer depression (although I am a very tidy person!). In order to get a better grip on this (and because I actually really like it and find it interesting), I became a professional organizer. I have learned methods to deal with this in a better way and to help others, because that is something I prefer to do: to help others!
Starting My Own Company
In good spirits, I started my company Tidy Life after my education. I wanted to help people to create a tidy home. However, as soon as I had set it up, I ran into certain challenges. Challenges such as finding clients. Acquisition is not really something that I am good at as an introvert. I actually had to go to people’s homes. Enter their house to help them in their journey towards a tidy home. On my own. That threshold turned out to be much greater than I had thought.
That is why I started practicing with friends and acquaintances. And generally that went well, but I also went to places that were very stimulating. For example, one of my test clients had loud music on, and there was a smell of cigarette smoke. Well, how do you deal with that? In my general terms and conditions I then set out the conditions for the space where I will be working, which gave me a lot of inner peace.
The Search For Happiness
But no matter how proud I was of my tidy home company and how much I wanted to help, the threshold turned out to be too high. In the end, I resumed full-time employment in mid-July last year and I quit working on my company last month. Because of my health, but also because I could not step over that threshold. Therefore, I am still searching for how to deal with my high sensitivity (and introvertedness). And that is why I am so happy with HiSensitives. Because you are never too old to work on yourself and I am convinced that people can grow. And that’s what I’m going to do. And who knows what the future will bring me.
Do You Want To Share Your Story?
Is there anything related to your trait that you want to share with us and other highly sensitive people? Feel free to submit your story to us via a private message on Facebook or by e-mail: contact@hisensitives.com
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