How I Prevent Burnout In Business and Life As a HSP
You know what helps me the most to navigate my life and business as a highly sensitive person (HSP)?
Not expecting myself to navigate the world as a non-HSP.
I know that sounds deceptively simple, so you may have blown right by that last sentence. I invite you to read it again:
I don’t expect myself to navigate the world as a non-HSP.
I don’t expect myself to enjoy the same things as a non-HSP.
I don’t expect myself to have the same capacity as a non-HSP.
I don’t expect to be able to have the same workload or work in the same ways.
I don't expect myself to enjoy large groups of people.
I don’t expect myself to be adept at small talk.
What changed everything was BELIEVING MYSELF and my sensitivities, and acting accordingly.
My deepest wound in childhood came from these very sensitivities not being believed and consistently minimized, so believing myself is a radical act of self-compassion and reparenting.
Because I believe myself, I make accommodations for my sensitivities in both my life and business instead of forcing myself to “get over them” or telling myself how I “should” be.
There is no longer any “I should be able to have more 1:1 sessions in a day”, “I should be able to work longer hours without feeling so tired”, “I should go to this party since everyone else seems to enjoy it”—-
There are just the bare bones facts of my actual capacity with no judgment attached to it.
My capacity just IS, and it is not a problem to be solved.
I’ve let go of the violence that “should” does to me as a highly sensitive person in a world that wasn’t set up with me in mind.
Intentionally building my life and business around my honest capacity is the primary way that I prevent burnout as a highly sensitive, neurodivergent person.
Yes, I can build my capacity through supporting myself, but that comes through honoring my capacity, not blowing past it.
We can impose “shoulds” on ourselves and others all day everyday, but that doesn’t change what is.
And the truth of what is is begging to be told and lived through you.
Reflection Questions:
What is your body telling you is your honest capacity in your business? In your life? In your relationships? (Even if you can’t fully honor that capacity right now, there is medicine in being honest with yourself)
What might you do differently in your life and business if you believed yourself and your sensitivities?
Where do you potentially still judge yourself or make yourself wrong for your sensitivities or honest capacity?
What is the gift in your sensitivities?
If you want to learn how to build a life and business that honors your true capacity as a HSP, check out my coaching offerings for ways that I can support you.
