The first time I heard the phrase – a “thin skinned person” it really resonated with me. The idea that some people absorb emotions and situations. I realised I am definitely in the thin-skinned camp!
I am an introvert and an observer, noticing and feeling things, others may not. An empath by nature who has always attempted to be thicker skinned in the past to brush things off easier. It felt difficult to be so open to my emotions and understand why I felt so drained by certain people, crowds, and situation. Sensing atmospheres before I entered a room.
Whilst observing the revelation of my thin-skinned self, I have realised my softness is ultimately my superpower. The thing that I tried to push away and try to hide, is that very thing that makes me unique.
I always viewed my introversion as a negative thing. It made me feel vulnerable and uber aware. I tried to hide it and push myself into being this extrovert personality, when really, I am the opposite. Longing for peace and my own company. I was suppressing myself and my needs to squeeze my square peg into a round hole.
I never felt there was a space for ever allowing my innate self to realise itself. It left me feeling drained and overly receptive to other people’s comments, thoughts, and perceptions. Our inner world can be overwhelming, our sensitivity can become our connection and our language we exchange with others. When we ignore our needs and emotions and push them down, eventually they leak out of us by disease or upset, resentment or anger.
With my new realisation of my thin-skinned self-came great responsibility. Responsibility of protecting my own emotional softness. By choosing very carefully those relationships I have, and how I put up my own barriers to protect that thin skin at all costs. We can fear our thin-skinned potential, and our power. However, thin skinned traits are needed in this world – we are naturally professional supporters, diplomats, mediators, listeners, and advisors.
We have taken the recipe that has been handed to us through society or families and have taken it on as our own. Sensitivity being shown to us through others as a vulnerability, it has made us small. It has made us feel that the only opinion we want is the opinion of others when the only opinion we really need is the opinion of ourselves.
I think it is time for an uprising. I think us sensitive ones have stayed small long enough, it is time to stand in our power – Our thin-skinned superpower! It may feel difficult to understand that we can be sensitive and still be us. The only way to do it is to be it, to be authentic, to show people our thin skinniness, not treat it as something to fear anymore.
By viewing my sensitivity and this empathic understanding as a vice and something to be ashamed of, is saying that we are ashamed of ourselves. Instead of seeing it for what it is – sensitivity is the liberation!
We must recognise that up until now, someone else’s ideas, someone else’s social conditioning and beliefs has kept us thinking our sensitivity was our downfall. Let us relate from where we are – our truths and our differences. Our power comes from being seen. We can only be truly seen by stepping out of the shadow and knowing who we are.
We know that there is this fire energy inside us, we also know that there are people who are also going to try to distinguish this feeling. We have got to nurture that inner sensitivity, allowing it to glow brightly because that glow is your spark, and that spark is what makes you unique.
It is our gift, not our nemesis. We need to use it, and do not abandon it. As a reforming people pleaser, I can often feel suffocated and heavy with responsibilities caused by the weight of other expectations. Underneath the social blueprint lies the thin-skinned person, waiting to show their softness to the chosen few that will embrace it the care and tenderness it deserves.
It is allowing us to see and feel more, to express ourselves and help others to express themselves, to go beyond the basic understandings to a deep knowing that many do not possess, but us thin skinned people do – we feel it all!
It is time to truly surrender to you, to spend time rekindling that spark and that flame so that your light shines brightly. To use that as a torch on your path, the old way of staying small is gone, there is only the new route.
The new revolution with your light that you have found. The spark that you are growing will show you your way, with your own gifts, and authenticity and most importantly with your own superpower that is your sensitivity!