This is the Highly Sensitive Person Podcast, a weekly podcast for people who care deeply about everything.

Join me on a journey to accept the way we intensely experience the world.

Welcome to the Highly Sensitive Person Podcast. My name is Kelly and I'm your host. I have to tell you,

this is episode number one, but this isn't the first episode I recorded for this podcast. Nope,

I recorded episode two, three, and four prior to this one because I knew number 1 had to be good.

I knew I had to explain what it means to be highly sensitive and I had to do a really good job.

But I actually want to start by talking about what HSP isn't.

Being highly sensitive doesn't mean you're weak.

Sensitive means, quote, quick to detect or respond to slight changes, signals, or influences.

So take your old definition of sensitivity and throw it out the window.

Sensitivity doesn't mean you're weak. It means you're observant.

That sounds like somebody I want to be friends with.

Equating sensitive with weak is what many of us were taught. It's what we grew up with in the

U.S. and it's a shame. What sensitive really means is that you are very aware of other people's

feelings and thoughts, your own feelings and thoughts, your environment, nature, art, music, and everything

around you. It doesn't mean you hate being around people. It's not social anxiety or shyness.

It doesn't mean you're a drama queen who cries all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean that

you're an introvert. and it doesn't mean you're

strange. That's right, folks. I'm here to tell you today that you're not strange. Think of being

highly sensitive as hearing all sounds three times louder, all smells three times stronger,

and all emotions three times more intensely. So, are you highly sensitive?

Dr. Elaine Aaron wrote what is considered to be the definitive book about HSPs back in 1996,

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