Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World Paperback – June 11, 2024

I've just finished reading Sensitive, about the gifts of high sensory people (HSPs) in today's go-go-go, work-til-you-drop, making-fun-of-caring world. They make the point so well that sensitivity is a natural gift, not a flaw. (Insensitivity isn't working too well.)As a highly sensitive person myself, it's a balm and a great guidebook. While I've known about my sensitive gifts for many years, and help others understand it, I am still finding so many new insights in this book. It's perfect for beginner and advanced alike. I've been recommending it to all my clients too. (I'm a career and business coach for HSPs.)I feel uplifted by so many parts of this book. The insights about what really goes on inside us sensitives, and the gifts we bring to the table, is so intriguing and explained well. It also explains what sensitivity is and isn't. (It's confused with many other things.)This book feels like a manual for how to thrive as a sensitive person (we are up to 30% of the population but mostly kept hidden due to the Toughness Myth that dominates), at work and at home.Even if you're not a sensitive yourself, read it if you're a boss, a leader, a parent, a teacher, a spouse because you'll gain so many insights to make the workplace and home flow better.There's so much potential for unleashing these hidden-away gifts, and the research is incredible for how positive and productive it can be. You'll enjoy the stories and the research findings that are explained so well here. In fact, you can feel the gifts of sensitivity in the excellent writing and storytelling.Just like the introvert revolution sparked by the book Quiet, where people finally saw the gifts of introversion, this book is helping to spark a high sensory/ high sensitivity revolution happening where people are starting to see how positive it can be to have a trait like this that enables:depth of understanding, high aptitude for emotional intelligence, reading other people, strong intuition for better business decisions, attention to essential details that others miss (think saving lives), and incredible creative potential.Bruce Springsteen and Jane Goodall are two of the sensitive people profiled in the book, and they both show what a benefit those gifts can be.Some telling excerpts from the book:"sensitivity is an advantage. Sensitive people may once have been our weather predictors, spiritual advisers, and trackers. Take that same trait and apply it to a teacher, a stock market trader, or a CEO, and you can see how sensitive people are still built to thrive today -- even if society doesn't think so."----"We routinely laud the accomplishments of sensitive souls -- life-changing musical albums, world-changing civil rights movements, and so on-- even while we try to quash sensitivity itself. It's good to be kind, but don't be a bleeding heart; it's good to be creative, but stop being so weird about it. Express your feelings, but not so much that anyone must take them seriously."---"Imagine two accountants: The first one drops in your numbers, makes sure they do add up, and sends them off to the government. Done. The second one goes further. They check supporting documents to make sure nothing is missed. They walk you through extra ways to save money. And they screen everything for red flags that might trigger an audit. Who would you rather have do your taxes?"I'm more convinced that I want to seek out sensitive providers of various kinds - like doctors, dentists, advisors. It's valuable! Now I hope they will start claiming it proudly so we can find them.

Great insights and information

It helped me to understand about my sensitive, but it didn't guide me to find a root of a problem. The book explained that it's okay to be a sensitive person. I hope it helps you.

This book helped me understand myself, my spouse, and my family better. My spouse is highly sensitive, my family is low sensitive, and I'm sort of medium-sensitive. That's what's great about this book: it's for everybody, wherever you fall on the sensitivity meter.The writing is polished, the examples are vivid and engaging, and there's a chapter covering nearly every walk of life, from love to work to parenting. But the best part, and this is the point the authors really drive home, is that sensitivity is actually a superpower. It may come at a cost (easy over-stimulation), but it helps my spouse and I deeply understand our environments and the people around us. Sensitivity is about how deeply you process sensory stimuli, and that depth of processing is what makes us the creative, thoughtful, and empathic people that we are.Now if I can just get my parents to read this book. Maybe they'll understand that my spouse and I are not "too" sensitive, we just process our environments differently. And the things they appreciate about us might just be thanks to our sensitivity.Full disclosure: Andre is a close friend and I helped research this book. That said, we disagreed a bit on what to include and he and Jenn made the right call. The book is better for it.

Great read.

I keep picking it up and putting back down again because the print is too small to read. I read all day at work without any issues. Maybe it's the font, I don't know but it's hard to get through.

I'm so thankful for this book! It feels amazing to have support and understanding and know I'm not alone in how I have been feeling all of these years. It's brings me so much peace and now I'm able to navigate life as my authentic self. I always felt like I needed to change because I never felt like I fit in. Even though I love people and am so interested in hearing about their own lives, I would feel so drained after only a few hours. I also feel drained by too much shallow conversation and not enough substance. I'm truly grateful for all of those who share their stories and their own authentic selves. It helps me and many others feel less alone and that we all belong in this world. Thank you very much Jenn and Andre for all of your hard work writing this extremely helpful book!

Phenomenal book. It helped me make sense of my lifelong sensitivity and see how it’s an asset, as opposed to the liability I’ve always considered it to be. Provides great tools and tips for optimizing life and performing at your best as a person who’s highly in touch with the world and others. Do yourself a favor and read it!