The Phases of Awakening as a Highly Sensitive Woman

Today, I’m reflecting on the winding journey of discovering, understanding, healing, and ultimately embodying a healthy expression of my high sensitivity. It’s a path that hasn’t been linear, marked by struggles that slowed my healing and liberation. I want to share this experience because I believe it can help other highly sensitive women navigate their own journeys with greater ease and clarity.

Phase 1: Acceptance of the Trait

One of my biggest challenges was accepting my sensitivity as a real, defining trait. It took a lot of research before I could start to believe that it was a real and normal trait. I doubted my experiences and questioned whether they were truly linked to being a highly sensitive person. A healthy dose of skepticism kept me from simply attaching myself to a label. I didn’t want to use it as an excuse for places where I thought I was just “failing.”

This doubt created a push-and-pull within me. Sometimes, I was convinced my sensitivity was real and deserving of care. Other times, I tried to overcome or suppress my experiences, treating them as obstacles to be conquered. In hindsight, I see how this approach bypassed my truth and disconnected me from myself. It wasn’t until I fully surrendered to my senses and made a conscious choice to build a life that honored my sensitivity that things truly began to shift.

Phase 2: Trusting Myself and My Experiences

For years, I bypassed and numbed my senses, masking my true self to fit in. My ability to read the room and adapt to people and environments became a survival skill—a way to protect my sensitive heart from the intensity of my feelings. It shielded me from the pain of feeling different, of being perceived as “too much”—too intense, too passionate, too serious, too intelligent.

These feelings of being judged or not belonging were deeply painful. To avoid drawing attention to myself and experiencing the distress of “I do not belong” or “people do not like me,” I learned to blend in. But this survival mechanism came at a cost: I lost touch with who I was beneath the mask.

Reconnecting with myself meant clearing out these practiced “ways of being” and rebuilding trust with myself. I had to face the vulnerability I’d long avoided and acknowledge that my way of perceiving the world wasn’t “all in my head.”

This was a phase of deep self-discovery. As I reconnected with my senses and began living more in my body than in my mind, my intuition started to emerge. The more I followed this intuitive voice, the more I validated my experiences and realized how often my feelings and perceptions were true.

This part of my journey felt like a reclamation—a healing and liberation of the intuitive wild woman within me. She is deeply connected to her senses and navigates the world through her body rather than the programming of her mind.

Phase 3: Valuing My Sensitivity

It wasn’t until I began to trust my intuition that I could see my sensitivity as a gift rather than a burden. For so long, it felt overwhelming—I would absorb the pain of the world and feel responsible for finding solutions. But as I started living in alignment with my sensitivity, prioritizing my own well-being, I discovered its power.

Honoring my sensitivity made me a safe space for others to express their true selves. I became someone who inspired others to reconnect with their authentic, playful, untamed, and creative natures. I began to see how my sensitivity allowed me to perceive the deeper needs of humanity and the planet—needs for healing, transformation, and connection.

Suddenly, what once felt like chaos within me began to make sense. I wasn’t a lost, chaotic mess. I was processing the collective chaos of humanity and learning how to create peace within it. This realization was incredibly validating. I now see my sensitivity as a profound strength and mission: to inspire change, to live with an open heart, and to embody the healing and transformation we so deeply need in this world.

Concluding Thoughts: Accept, Trust, Value

When you can accept that you are highly sensitive and that this entails a shift in the mainstream way of living, and you start giving this to yourself unapologetically, your sensitivity will begin to reward you for it. Your body will start coming back to life and will begin to communicate with you: "This way, not that way." Your intuition will start to lead you, and it is the most powerful force for self-liberation that you have access to. It is the leader to your authentic self—the person you are from within, when no one is around and when no one is looking.

When you are able to let this authentic self inhabit your body, you begin to bring this truth into the world as you move through it, regardless of what you are doing and who you are with. Your energy and aura start making an impact simply through your being. When this starts to happen, you begin to experience the positive impact this has on others and the world around you.

Then, you can turn around and see that the very thing that used to be a big burden—when you were trying to live like a less-sensitive neurotypical person—is now your biggest strength.

I know it is challenging to change your entire way of being, your habits, your schedules, your food, what you consume, who you interact with and how, the environments you are in... and yet, when you allow your senses to lead you through this process, you will arrive exactly where you need to be. And if there is any purpose to life and you are searching for it, it is my belief that this is how you find it. Your purpose shows up when you are being most freely yourself—or perhaps the purpose is simply to be yourself, fully and freely, and to share this with the world.