Sensitivity

An exploration of flower essences you can choose
to change sensitivity from a liability to an asset.

“Oh, you’re too sensitive!”

How many of us have heard that before, especially with a derogatory connotation? Most of us can relate to being sensitive. As children we were all sensitive.

If you are sensitive, you are present and aware of what is happening around you. It is a great joy to watch a baby’s presence as she discovers the world around her. All her senses are engaged as she experiences people and things that make up her environment.

Most of us have learned to cut off or dissociate from some of our senses. It is necessary to do so, especially when there are too many stimuli in your environment. We can only be aware of a limited number of things at once, so we learn to choose what we are aware of and what we block out at any given time. What happens, however, when we do not consciously decide what to be aware of and what to block out? Those who were raised in dysfunctional family situations may be using an outdated set of criteria as the foundation for making the choice. Others may not even realize that they have a choice and feel victimized by their sensitive nature and the overwhelming amount of external stimuli.

Protecting Your Sensitivity

Learning to consciously choose what you allow into your awareness and what you block out is vital to protecting your sensitivity. The root of this ability to discriminate is in recognizing and accepting our sensitivity.

Once you can accept your sensitivity, you need to learn how to function meaningfully in the world. Sometimes this means protecting yourself by avoiding certain people or environments that are too stimulating. Other times it means standing up for yourself when others, out of a lock of sensitivity, are too aggressive. Learning this kind of discrimination enhances your ability to have good mental, emotional, physical, and psychic boundaries and allows you to use your sensitivity as an excellent support.

Do you judge yourself for being sensitive? Do you think of it as a curse or abnormal state of being? The Embracing Humanness Formula is excellent for recognizing that we are sensitive and accepting it as a natural part of being human, even if those around you do not have the same sensitivity.

Jojoba flower essence is for those who were told as a child that they are too sensitive, that it is undesirable or unacceptable to be so. Sensitivity can leave us feeling unable to handle the mundane events of life. The more aware of our sensitivity we are, the more we feel we need to protect it. Its true, we do need to protect ourselves, but we can create appropriate boundaries that will support our sensitive nature without having to isolate ourselves. Jojoba can bring a sense of security and ease, helping us find strength in the common events of life without squelching sensitivity. It supports us in feeling capable and able to handle every-day tasks.

Cow Parsnip is for the highly sensitive individual who has covered it up with being overly responsible. Those who fit the patterns of this essence are often, but not exclusively, the eldest child or the eldest son or daughter. They might have hidden their sensitive nature by taking on responsibility for younger siblings. As adults, they are often overly serious, take on too much responsibility, worry excessively, and are unable to play and have fun. This essence supports us in knowing we can handle our life by turning it over to a Higher Power and giving up the pattern of taking on too much. It supports us in lightening up and letting play and fun be an integrated part of living.

Sensitivity to Stimulation

One of the most important ways to take responsibility for fostering sensitivity and still living in the world is by knowing when you have had enough stimulation. We are surrounded by input from every direction. We have so much information available that we need to learn when enough is enough.

Learning to shut down stimulation and integrate is vital to retaining your sensitivity and protecting it. Fairy Duster is a flower essence that helps with exactly that. This flower essence soothes and stabilizes the nervous system, which is the physiological system that connects external stimulus to the physical body. Fairy Duster helps nervous excitability and hypersensitivity, flightiness, or reactivity to stimulation.

I have used Fairy Duster for countless newborns to help them adjust to the intense amount of stimulation that comes with living in our modern society. It supports a newborn to shut down when necessary and integrate what they have experienced. The same qualities of Fairy Duster are necessary for adults when we need to deal with overload.

We do not always know when enough input is enough unless we have been taught to recognize the warning signs: nervousness, a feeling of being overloaded, a sense that your mind is shutting down, inability to focus, to name a few. Instead of pushing yourself to stay with it, Fairy Duster encourages the awareness that you need to take a break, to give yourself time to integrate, to step back and be quiet for a spell so that you can calm down all the sensory stimulation and integrate.

Dealing with Intense Situations

The Crisis – Desert Emergency Formula is a staple in the sensitive person’s tool kit. This is the essence that can help us be present and deal with pain or intense situations. Most of us who are sensitive have learned to run away from pain. We learn as children that pain and discomfort is just too much to handle, so we dissociate from our bodies to escape intense situations or pain. The result is a sense of not being fully present in life. We feel like aliens, as if we are disconnected from humanity and earthly life. We wonder, “Why don’t others feel what I am feeling? Why am I so different?”

The Crisis Formula can help us be more present and in the moment, more grounded and integrated. By remaining present and focusing on the pain or the situation that is causing it, we actualize the process of transformation. This essence can help us use our sensitivity in a way that moves us through the pain and out the other side. By remaining more aware and more focused on the cause, everything changes. We learn the secret of energy: it never is destroyed but just transforms into another form. Pain and discomfort can become grace and joy.

Clearing Negativity Away

Most sensitive people have longed for something to help them clear away negativity or undesired patterns or thoughts. The Clearing & Releasing Formula is a composite of flower essences that helps with exactly that. Sensitive people are aware of different vibrational disturbances that they may not always be able to identify yet are disturbing to a sense of peace and calm. The Clearing & Releasing Formula is for clearing your energy field or a physical space of all unwanted vibrational disturbances.

Many folks in the alternative healing professions use this essence by spraying it in their treatment or consultation room between clients to refresh the space. We have had a lot of feedback from people using The Clearing & Releasing Formula in homes to refresh rooms. One woman I know always uses it in the family room after her sons watch violent movies because she senses the vibration of violence lingering. By using the formula, she feels an immediate cleansing of the room.

Trusting your Intuitive Nature

Queen of the Night is for those who either do not trust their sensitive, intuitive nature, or who have learned to ignore it in favor of a more logical, rational perspective. This essence is for those who think that their more spiritual or vulnerable side leads to impotence, escapism, or an inability to handle life. This essence helps us integrate our sensitivity so that we can feel and sense what is right and trust the wisdom it brings. It helps us accept our power of deep seeing, understanding, feeling and sensuality. Queen of the Night helps us accept an integrated sense of our godliness and humanity.

Finding Strength in Vulnerability

Sensitivity may leave us feeling vulnerable. Spineless Prickly Pear Cactus helps us know one of life’s greatest paradoxes, that vulnerability is actually a strength. It is only through being vulnerable that we can allow universal energy to shape and form us. It helps bring a great sense of “I AM”, a state of consciousness that is anchored in the deepest connectedness to the Creator.

Psychic Sensitivity

Psychic sensitivity is an area in which Sangre de Drago flower essence can create harmony. In some cultures, psychic sensitivity is understood and expected. In most western cultures, however, it is not necessarily as easily accepted. Psychic sensitivity is simply being aware of the energy that emanates from living beings. We can consciously choose to tune it out, just as we can tune out sounds or other distractions. We have to consciously choose to do so, however.

Sangre de Drago flower essence can help you be more aware of your psychic sense and learn to honor it. We honor this sense in the same way we honor physical, emotional or mental senses: by learning to have appropriate boundaries. This flower essence supports us in maturing our ability to have appropriate psychic boundaries. This is an excellent flower essence for those who are “psychic sponges”, whose psychic awareness is “on” all the time and who don’t know how to shut it off at will.

Oversensitivity to Other Peoples’ Emotions

Star Evening Primrose is for oversensitivity to others’ emotions. If you feel emotionally controlled by another person or situation, this essence supports the understanding that you have a freedom of emotional response that is not dictated by outer conditions.

Bear Grass is helpful if you are afraid that someone’s intentions can overpower you. If you recognize your sensitive nature, you may fear that others won’t. It is important to be able to say what you need as you relate to others who may not be as sensitive as you are. In “The Alchemy of the Desert”, I describe this important aspect with which many sensitive people need help.

Sometimes dealing with others means taking a strong and decisive stance. Sometimes coming from your heart means being tough or standing your ground.

Often when we need to take a stance of strength we doubt ourselves. We wonder whether our actions are heart centered. Actions that come from the heart are ones that are appropriate to the situation.

If we have not learned how to contend successfully with another’s aggressive behavior, we may feel overwhelmed or fearful when we are faced with it. Bear Grass helps us know that we are firmly anchored in our hearts. We can find our own appropriate responses because they spring from our center.

We must find a way to honor our sensitivity and still engage with the world. Our sensitivity can be a great strength if we know how to cultivate and channel it to support us. The challenge is to protect our sensitivity but not have it keep us isolated. The balance is tricky, but flower essences are a timely support for creating conscious choice with our sensitivity.

Selecting the Most Appropriate Flower Essences

Not every flower essence mentioned above will be appropriate for every person’s specific needs. Different people have different issues with their sensitivity. The process itself of exploring and contemplating your relationship to sensitivity is important. It is the foundation for successfully selecting the most beneficial flower essences. Usually, careful self-examination can clearly show you which of the above flower essences are most appropriate for the root of your issue with sensitivity.

Though you can use more than one flower essence together, you probably will not need to use all of the ones mentioned here. After contemplating your relationship to this issue, select the flower essences that apply for you, or use an intuitive method to select among them. (For more information on how to do this, see The Art & Technique of Using Flower Essences.) A general guideline is to use four drops at a time, four times a day, in water. However, it is fine to follow your intuition and use them as often as you like. Most people find that they tend to use them more often in the beginning and less often towards the end of the cycle. Unless otherwise indicated, a cycle is usually two to four weeks. [more]

For information on how to clearly evaluate the effects of the essences you have used, see The Art & Technique of Using Flower Essences.

List of the Flower Essences Mentioned in this Article

Bear Grass

If you are afraid that someone’s intentions can overpower you. When you recognize your sensitive nature, you may fear that others won’t. It is important to be able to say what you need as you relate to others who may not be as sensitive as you are. It supports you in coming from your heart as you deal with others’ aggressive behavior.

Clearing & Releasing Formula

Sensitive people are aware of different vibrational disturbances that they may not always be able to identify yet are disturbing to a sense of peace and clam. The Clearing & Releasing Formula is for clearing your energy field or a physical space of all unwanted vibrational disturbances.

Cow Parsnip

For the highly sensitive individual who has covered it up with being overly responsible. If you are overly serious and are unable to play and have fun, this essence supports you in knowing you can handle your life by turning it over to a Higher Power and by letting play and fun be an integrated part of living.

Crisis-Desert Emergency Formula

This is the essence that can help us be present and deal with pain or intensity instead of running away from it or dissociating to escape. By remaining present and focusing on the pain or the situation that is causing it, we actualize the process of transformation and use our sensitivity in a way that moves us through the pain and out the other side.

Embracing Humanness Formula

If you feel that your sensitivity is a curse or a limitation, this flower essence formula could be the first step. For recognizing that we are sensitive and accepting it as a natural part of being human, even if those around you do not have the same sensitivity.

Fairy Duster

For sensory overload, too much stimulation that overloads the nervous system, and the inability to integrate; exhaustion that is the result of too much mental focus or over-reactivity to stimulation.

Jojoba

Feeling too sensitive to handle the mundane events of life; feeling overwhelmed by an environment; for those who were told as a child that they are too sensitive, that it is undesirable or unacceptable to be so.

Queen of the Night Cactus

For those who either do not trust their sensitive, intuitive nature, or who have learned to ignore it in favor of a more logical, rational perspective. Excellent if you think that your more spiritual or vulnerable side leads to impotence or an inability to handle life. For integrating your sensitivity so that you trust the wisdom it brings.

Sangre de Drago

Can help you be more aware of your psychic sense and learn to honor it. It supports you in maturing your ability to have appropriate psychic boundaries. This is an excellent flower essence for those who are “psychic sponges”, whose psychic awareness is “on” all the time and who don’t know how to shut it off at will.

Spineless Prickly Pear Cactus

Sensitivity may leave us feeling vulnerable. Spineless Prickly Pear Cactus helps us know one of life’s greatest paradoxes, that vulnerability is actually a strength. It is only through being vul-nerable that we can allow universal energy to shape and form us.

Star Evening Primrose

For oversensitivity to others’ emotions. If you feel emotionally controlled by another person or situation, this essence supports the understanding that you have a freedom of emotional response that is not dictated by outer conditions.