Returning to Yourself... The Way to My Home

Highly sensitive? Make time for your true self

It's been a while since I wrote my last blog: 'What helps me in my high sensitivity'. A refreshing summer is behind us. In this blog, I want to share how I am doing now and, in doing so, also share inspiration for people with HSP who recognise that they are in need of a period of Self-examination and a pass in their lives.

Before the summer holidays, I had a hunch I was doing much better. On a Friday night off, I rented a beach house for a week in the first week of September. Everyone back to work, kids back to school. And I gambled on beautiful Indian summer weather. In doing so, I had the image that I then wanted to celebrate that my Burnout, for the most part, had been overcome. Well, people with HSP have foresight, it turned out.

Monday morning, September 1, I grabbed and packed my bike. My partner takes care of the home situation and I could set off, with a bright sun in the sky. A lovely bike ride brings me to the beach where a simple cottage awaits me. There are no other people there and the following week the cottages are cleared out. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables bought along the way. Wow! Peace and space radiates out to me on all sides. All week, I walk barefoot along the beach, meditate on a dune, eat delicious and simple food, read inspiring books, draw and write. Above all, I come to a deep layer of peace and feel this IS ME. This is where I have come to, I am coming home. A feeling that is best expressed as that you don't necessarily have to go anywhere, achieve anything, that you are completely fine as you are. No effort, no it takes no effort to be at home, there everything is right and relaxed. No questions, no answers, a great CONFIDENCE and a feeling of warm love, fills my energy. The connection with nature, the silence, help experience this feeling.
It is so essential to plan those moments in your day, week, month, year (see small survival guide for your HSP).

It is now four weeks on and gems are presenting themselves to me daily. But also, and most importantly, it remains important to pay attention to balance. If I give too much to clients and my family, and don't take space for a 'quiet moment', I feel I get too full and over-stimulated. I now take these signals seriously and I then make sure that balance is restored. For instance, after a long day of attending a seminar, I don't plan any obligations for the day after, but instead I go for a swim, a sauna, read a book and doze off.

Walking on the beach, I thought back to a book with a beautiful story, 'The Indomitable Woman of Clarissa Pinkola Estes', Sea Dog Skin, Soul Skin. Back home, I looked it up and it is very apt. I will, very briefly, tell you a bit about it.

For women in general, but especially with high sensitivity, soul consciousness is too easily abandoned and you get lost from your 'home'. As a result, you no longer know quite what YOU want or where your inspiration and power can be found.
In the story of the 'Sea Dog Woman', her skin is taken away and she leaves the sea, living as a human with the man who stole and hid her skin. He promises to give it back to her in seven years. They have a child. The woman loses more and more of her luster and dies, but the man does not keep his promise. Her child finds the skin that allows her to return to the sea, her home.
It is a beautiful story. Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book is highly recommended for this kind of beautiful story and explanation of it.

The skin represents your soul, which lets you steal, perhaps in an unguarded moment, not consciously. The initiation, from this image, is to learn the steps that will help you complete the return home. Becoming conscious to that trust is nurtured when you are caring towards yourself and from there you radiate to those around you. Highly sensitive people often ignore needs or withdraw extremely, the other extreme. The power is found in listening to your needs again and again and seeking balance. Balance is also always being disrupted again, so it is an ongoing process!

Nature helps you experience your 'wild nature'.
Your 'wild nature' is itself, original and authentic.

So it is sometimes necessary to detach yourself from what has become habitual and doesn't feel comfortable, to start feeling more deeply what your true, 'wild nature' is saying. Wow, then life gets more and more fun!

Nice if you leave a comment.
Questions and comments welcome :-)

Greetings,
Marjan Zevenbergen from
Psychology practice 'Flowers On Your Path'