Highly sensitive and quickly overstimulated? What that does to your body

I regularly hear from women that they’ve called themselves highly sensitive for a while, or that someone else used the term for the first time. Light that’s too bright, sound that lingers, a busy room that costs far more energy than it seems to cost the people around them. What that actually does to your body, I notice daily in my practice.

A body that lets more in

Being highly sensitive means your nervous system processes stimuli more strongly and more quickly than average. That’s not a weakness, it’s a way of perceiving. But it does come at a cost, where someone else gets through a busy day fairly unnoticed, your body is often exhausted by the end of that same day, without anything unusual having happened.

That tiredness often comes with physical tension. Shoulders that creep up as soon as things get busy, a jaw that clenches at too much noise, a stomach that tightens in a crowded room. The body is trying to shield itself from what’s coming in.

Why resting isn’t always enough

Many highly sensitive women already know they need breaks, and take them. Yet the tension sometimes lingers anyway, even after a quiet weekend. That’s because taking rest is different from actually releasing tension. Your body can get used to a heightened state of alertness, even when nothing is being asked of it for a while.

What helps break that state

In my practice in Hoofddorp I work with targeted massage to let your body literally feel that it’s safe to let go. For highly sensitive women, that touch and attention is often exactly what’s needed, a moment where nothing is asked of you and your body gets the space to shift back down.

Does this sound familiar? Read more about your nervous system and tension or make an appointment.