HSPs, Christmas and COVID-19

This festive season is shaping up to be a challenging time for sensitives. Here's how our community can stay grounded

As Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), we can have an acute sense of what’s going on in the collective.

With Christmas days away, and COVID-19 all over the news again, many of us are feeling on edge — whether we’re picking up on all the fear and anxiety out there, or trying to figure out our own plans for the next week.

As well as being a wonderful celebration, Christmas can be an emotional time: If we’re spending it with family, we can find ourselves slipping back into habitual patterns. In the midst of a pandemic, we can feel a great burden of responsibility for others’ well-being — and we don’t want to get COVID-19 ourselves. We might be feeling pressure to make the “right” decisions over the next few weeks, whether on behalf of ourselves, or our friends and family. For some of us, all this uncertainty can trigger the kind of overthinking that keeps so many HSPs awake at night.

With this in mind, I’d like to offer some tips for staying grounded as we move into the New Year:

Give yourself permission to feel what you feel — It’s very normal to feel disempowered right now. Many of us are in sadness, anxiety, disappointment, frustration or anger. The surge in Omicron may also have served as a reminder of losses we have already suffered over the past 18 months, reconnecting us with our grief. Because HSPs feel so deeply, many of us have spent our lives telling ourselves we should be able to “pull ourselves together” or “look on the bright side” — often because of the conditioning we received from our parents or schools. But this programming to stuff down our feelings only causes us to suffer more. Whatever’s coming up, you will move through it faster if you allow yourself to feel it fully. No feeling lasts forever; accept whatever is there and — before long — you will notice it begin to transmute.

Focus on what you can control — For HSPs, it’s always important to keep our nervous systems regulated. But many HSPs I know are experiencing a lot of anxiety as they think through every possible eventuality that could occur over the next few weeks. It’s good to plan ahead to help us feel on top of things — but too much analysing only generates more worry. Accept that there’s never going to be a perfect decision. Don’t let other people pressure you to do things you don’t feel comfortable with. Assess the facts, and tune in to what feels right for you today.

Catch yourself comparing — Many of us can lie awake at night comparing ourselves with all the people who seem to have everything sorted for Christmas — or don’t seem to be that fazed by what’s going on with the pandemic. But comparing ourselves with others is part of an old programming of competition, individualism and striving that leads inevitably to burn-out. Instead, we can acknowledge that we each have something unique to contribute. If you find yourself comparing, take a deep breath and then spend a few moments considering some of your own individual gifts and strengths. You’re worth a lot more than your mind likes to tell you.

Stay connected to others — With so much up in the air, it can tempting for some HSPs — particularly the 70% of us who are more introverted — to shut ourselves off from the world, particularly these days. But we know that loneliness can really impact our mental health. It’s important to make an effort to stay connected with loved ones, even remotely, as we move through Christmas and into the New Year, as well as finding your tribe in like-minded communities such as this one.

Make time for stillness — It’s an intense period, and it’s easy for us HSPs to get thrown off balance — especially with all the information overload. Remember that structuring time into your week to ground, be still and rest is an essential part of staying well as an HSP. Even something as simple as a walk in the park; nodding off to some relaxing music; indulging in a soothing podcast, or returning to a favourite self-help or spiritual book can help us turn down the over-thinking part of the brain, and reconnect with deeper dimensions of ourselves.

As always, I love it when people write in the comments since every exchange helps to gradually build our HSP Revolution community. If you’d like to share some of your own feelings around Christmas and COVID-19, and ways you manage your sensitivity at this time, please do post below.

I’ll be writing as usual this coming Tuesday. In the meantime, I wish you all a very

See you on the other side!

Dr Genevieve