7 Ways Meditation is a Must for Highly Sensitive People

I'm sure you've heard a million and a half times (a day) how good meditation is for you.

There are tons of modalities and methods for meditation, with a couple of the most popular ones being Zen Meditation and Transcendental Meditation.

It's good for your brain, good for your body, and good for your spirit.

It's GOOD for you!

But why is it especially good for a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?

Here are 7 reasons meditation will supercharge your life as an HSP:

1) Puts you in touch with your body

As HSPs, we can REALLY get in our heads - and live in our own internal world while we go through the motions in the external world.

Getting stuck in thought loops is a common issue for HSPs, so any opportunity to really get in touch with your physical experience will help get you out of the hamster wheel in your head and back into a grounded experience of your body's sensations.

Feeling your body from the inside out and where you are in space (proprioception) helps you sort out your intense senses and focus in a clarifying way.

2) Gets you out of the past or the future and into the present

While everyone can get into cycles of rumination, HSPs can be especially susceptible to reliving painful moments from the past or anticipating tough experiences in the future.

Neither the past, nor the future exist - even though they can have helpful information for a master of subtlety like a highly sensitive person.

Getting back into the present moment breaks you out of the powerful rumination cycle that can be quicksand for an HSP and back into possibility in the present moment.

3) Calms your autonomic nervous system

Highly sensitive people have sensitive nervous systems. We pick up more information from our environments than the average person, and we work through a lot of pattern-recognition in our minds, which adds even more stimulation internally.

Breathing deeply helps calm your autonomic nervous system (the system of your body that regulates your automatic functions like heart rate and blood pressure).

Stillness and quiet (especially having your eyes closed) help calm your body so that your brain can function at a higher level and doesn't have to work so hard to get out of stress, anxiety, or analysis paralysis.

More oxygen to your brain also helps you think more clearly and make decisions from a calm, wise place.

That's a win-win-win!

4) Puts your overactive brain into alpha wave state

Highly sensitive people tend to be much more vigilant than the average bear - particularly about the moods and feelings of the people around us.

We can be extremely thoughtful, experience intense emotions, and become hyper aware of the people around us (even when they're just in the same building, let alone the same room).

It's easy for HSPs to get into a loop of beta-wave, narrative thoughts ("I should go to the store for dinner supplies. I wonder what's going on with my bestie. What am I supposed to be doing right now?") that create a mental tunnel vision.

Meditation helps move you from beta-wave, narrative-mind into the alpha-wave, dreamlike state.

Alpha waves are the ones for creativity, inspiration, and wisdom from the subconscious.

If you're feeling stuck or indecisive and tend to procrastinate, calm those fast beta waves into calmer alpha waves to start moving back into action from a place of calm and peac.ee

5) Slows the flow of information, limiting the potential for overstimulation

Throughout your day, you probably feel "stuffed," brain-wise, pretty frequently.

Highly sensitive people take in more information, more details, and more nuances than the average person (whether that's the details of a dense neuroscience book or the intricacies of a complicated relationship situation).

Meditation literally staunches the constant river of information flowing into your mind all the time and creates a calmer, slower flow of information.

That's good for sorting out your thoughts when you're going 1000mph in your head AND it gives you more breathing room to sort through and organize the information you've already gathered.

You're naturally taking in a lot of info all the time. Giving your mind a break helps it process more efficiently and intentionally.

6) Creates quiet and space for deep processing

Everyone can benefit from a little more being and a little less doing.

Trust me, I know this from experience.

HSPs often have high standards and know how to create optimal outcomes in many situations.

As a result of wanting to provide high-quality results in EVERY area of our lives, we are often more susceptible to the pressures to hustle and push through, even though that's often what depletes us most.

Having quiet, intentional space to process through information and ideas, whether that's after a mindful, Zen meditation or during a free-flow meditation, helps us get deeper, faster.

We live at depth, but when we swim so much along the surface that we tire ourselves out, it can get hard to dive deeper.

Meditation is like a diving suit, oxygen tank, and flippers all rolled into one so you can get deep fast and with less effort.

7) Helps with empathy and connection

Meditation slows our reactivity (lashing out in anger, avoiding situations and withdrawing) and gives us more room and foundation to respond to situations in our lives.

When we can take a breath or two to calm ourselves down, we're much more likely to see others as like ourselves and less like enemies that are thoughtless or selfish or plain old "bad."

As HSPs, we naturally want to connect and empathize with others on a deep level, but even we aren't completely immune to judging others who push our buttons or disagree with our values.

Giving yourself a few extra breaths and calm helps you empathize with others more easily and may even help you empathize with more people outside your normal range of experience.

Would you rather see yourself and others in a more positive way or get caught in resentful judgement spirals?

I know which one I'd pick.

Big, warm vibes,

Steph