Environmental Sensitivity Awareness – Information and Coping Tips

Environmental Sensitivity Awareness means you are extremely sensitive to your environment and everything around you. You are hyperaware of the colors, textures, noises, lights, odors, and food textures. Too many stimuli may overwhelm you, and you may avoid crowds, loud or chaotic places, flashing lights, bright colors, or smells.

You may find much of the world around you to be too noisy, smelly, insensitive, intense, bright, and chaotic.

What is barely noticeable by someone who isn’t as sensitive can send you over the edge. You may want to wall off from the world and retreat from a society that is too much to handle. Becoming a recluse isn’t always possible or practical; let’s face it, you don’t want to miss out on everything. The idea is to find ways to calm things down so that you can enjoy a peaceful, productive life.

Environment sensitivity involves being highly reactive to stimuli, making it easy to get distracted, jumpy, and overloaded.

Environmental Sensitivity as HSP/Empath Quiz Result

If you got a high score for Environmental Sensitivity on our HSP/Empath Quiz, this post will give you a lot of information and Coping Tips.

If you haven’t taken our Quiz, we highly recommend it to learn more about your Empath, HSP, and Highly Sensitive traits and challenges and how they can be your Superpowers.

Take our HSP/Empath Quiz and discover your Sensitivities and Superpowers

What is Environmental Sensitivity?

Environmental sensitivity is a fairly new description that combines highly reactive and sensory overload characteristics. In revamping our HSP/Empath Quiz, we looked at our research and realized that our two previous categories would work best.

I thought we had coined the term as the best way to describe the combined categories until I searched for Environmental Sensitivity and came up with several articles and a Wiki post: Environmental sensitivity describes the ability of an individual to perceive and process information about their environment. It is a basic trait in many organisms that enables an individual to adapt to different environmental conditions. You can read more about it in 10 Signs of High Environmental Sensitivity from Psychology Today, where they say, “High sensitivity to the environment can be defined as acute physical, mental, and emotional responses to one’s external (environmental, social) stimuli.”

The Plus Side

You are probably more sensitive to nature’s beauty and peace. Spending time in nature and quiet can help calm your reactive nervous system.

You can use your sensitivity to create peaceful, creative settings for others. There are many careers where these talents can be a Superpower. I’m thinking interior decorators for one, but anything that involves planning spaces and building for the public or creating productive workspaces and event planning. If you think about it, a myriad of other things will benefit from planning by someone like you who is aware of the overall feel and vibe and can assure that the environment is peaceful and uplifting and brings people together in productive, cooperative ways.

I’d love to hear back from some of our readers about how they’ve turned these qualities into positive ones and how they’ve had a positive (or negative) influence on your life. In the past, I’ve mostly focused on reducing the negative impact, and I would love some ideas on increasing the positive.

What Can Reduce the Sensory Overwhelm?

The good news is that there are things you can do to reduce some of the feelings of being overwhelmed and constantly bombarded. Learning that you have Environmental Sensitivity may be the beginning of making changes that reduce the impact on your life.

The BioElectric Shield can help. No, we can’t make the world suddenly quiet and peaceful, but it can smooth out some energy hitting you.

Often, Environmental Sensitives react not only to sound, lights, chaos, etc., but also to the frequencies, emotions, and energy behind them. The Shield can deflect a good share of that energy and keep your energy field more balanced.

Many people have described putting on a Shield as “feeling like they are in an oasis of calm” and instinctively taking a deep “ahhhhh” breath as they feel their bodies relax.

You may want to do other things to reduce the feelings of overwhelm or frustration that come with too much stimulation and input.

Specific Tips for Managing HSP Environmental Sensory Overload

Manage the Chaos to reduce Sensory Overload – Reduce your exposure to chaotic or crowded situations.

Malls and crowded stores are often the most difficult places for Sensory HSPs and Empaths. The noise, lights, electronics, energy, and emotions from all the people can completely overwhelm your senses. Many HSPs have difficulty thinking or making decisions in those circumstances.

Have you ever gone into a mall, trade show, expo, or other event and felt your brain fogging up? It can happen quickly and without warning. Next time you are in an environment like that, watch people. Watch people as they enter the door and see if you can locate them again in about a half hour. Please pay attention to the difference in the light in their eyes. If you don’t want to seem to follow people, then go farther into the event and start looking at people. Chances are you’ll see a fair number of people who look numb or dazed. That’s the effect of all the energies already causing their brightness and liveliness to shut down to overload.

Wearing a BioElectric Shield can help with the EMF and energy issues and may help reduce the reaction to noise, lights, etc. These places can become more tolerable but will still probably never be where you choose to spend much time.

Tip: Dial Down Your Sensitivity:

Imagine your openness to energy on a meter with a scale of 1-10 or high to low. Before you walk into an event or place that tends to cause you to shut down or become anxious, visualize dialing down your level of receptiveness. I recommend not shutting it down completely because you want to be aware of the positive energies. Play with it a bit. Most HSPs and empaths I’ve talked to have found that they feel best moving the dial between a one and a three. Play with it for yourself and see what works and in what circumstances.

Note – You can change this with just a thought. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, go down a notch or two. If you run into a good friend and want to connect, then go up a few. You are the best judge of what works for you.

Parties – Many HSPs have found that when going to a party, it’s helpful to find one or two people they can talk to and have quiet conversations with instead of trying to “work the room.” Another coping technique is to stay more towards the outside of the room rather than the middle of the crowd. Going outside for a break from time to time can also help. If there’s no way to go out, go in – bathrooms are great retreats.

Allow yourself some downtime afterward. You must find a quiet retreat to calm your nerves and refresh your energy. It’s often wise to schedule things so that you aren’t going to events back-to-back but have some time in between to recharge.

Home as a Calm Oasis – When choosing living or working situations, it will be very helpful to create a calm oasis as much as possible. Furniture that is comfortable and soft surfaces against your body will make you feel more at ease. If you decide on intense colors, choose those more soothing than stimulating. If you search online for “soothing colors for home,” you’ll find many helpful articles.

WorkSpace – Working in a cubicle probably isn’t a good idea for you. An office with a door that can close would work much better. If you must work in a cubicle, add some plants or other items that make you feel comfortable and at home. Wear headphones and listen to relaxing music to reduce the sounds around the office.

Keep things organized – this is good for work and home. Clutter can be extremely bothersome to your sensitive self.

Creative Clutter – You may need to keep projects in plain sight or forget they are waiting to be done.  If you have a desk or workspace that stays a bit cluttered no matter how hard you try. Accept it as part of your process. Clean it off occasionally, and you’ll be amazed at what you discover, but if neat and put in its place doesn’t happen, realize creative clutter is more of contained chaos and is part of your inspirational creative work style.

Dress for Comfort – Clothing texture and style are important for you, but comfort is even more so.

The old show “What Not to Wear” did some amazing things to help women change their looks. They sometimes shamed them out of their need for comfortable clothing. When buying clothing, keep looking until you find what flatters your body, looks stylish, And allows you to feel comfortable.

Even shoes can be an issue – you may feel better in sandals that allow your feet to breathe.

Pay attention to color and choose less stimulating colors – red and orange aren’t normally your best choices. Red can be overly stimulating, and orange can bring up or exacerbate emotions.

Tip: Cut out the tags. They can drive you nuts. If you can’t cut out the tag because of the way it’s sewn in, there is a product called a “tag tamer” that you can tape over the tag—instant relief. Look for soft clothing, smooth, touchable, breathable fabrics, tagless where possible, with no heavy applique or details, and elastic should be covered.

Tip: Get rid of everything you don’t love wearing. Having it hanging in your closet makes you feel bad, but wearing it can be even worse. Donate it so someone else can enjoy it. If you need help with this process, look up Marie Kondo’s methods. If that’s too extreme, find another organizer with some good ideas. Spending 15-20 minutes over a week can change your stress response when walking into a chaotic room.

Don’t let your less sensitive friends talk you into clothing, situations, etc, that aren’t comfortable for you. Unless they have your levels of sensitivity, they have no way of knowing what it’s like to be you. Don’t bother trying to explain too much. If they can’t feel it, chances are they feel you’re just being neurotic or need to get a grip.

Control the Sound and Take Breaks to reduce the effects of HSP Environmental Sensory Sensitivity.

Quiet things down – Sounds can be muffled with earbuds or noise-canceling headphones. White noise – a fan in the room at night or work to drown out other sounds can help you sleep and/or concentrate better.

Take a Break – Build some quiet time during the day, or pre-plan a way to retreat if necessary. At work or school, find a break room, unused room, or even a stairway or back entrance where you can stand or sit quietly and breathe to unwind, even for a few minutes. You’ll find those breaks help you concentrate so you can return to the task with renewed energy.

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Read More about Environmental Sensitivity – just some of my sources

10 Signs of High Environmental Sensitivity from Psychology Today

The Role of Environmental Sensitivity in Mental HealthSchool of Biological and Behavioral Sciences