Are you a person who notices the mood in a room before anyone has said a word? Who is completely exhausted by a day full of impressions, even if nothing "happened"? Then you may be one of the approximately 30 percent of us who are highly sensitive — and Handbook for Highly Sensitive People is the book that puts into words what you may have long known but never really been able to explain.
Asa Vikman, sociologist and specialist in high sensitivity, is herself highly sensitive and runs the Instagram account @orchidchildrensweden, where she reaches about a million accounts with knowledge on the subject every day. In the book, she shares both research and her own journey: what high sensitivity actually is, how it differs from just being cautious or shy, and how it affects everything from relationships and parenting to work life.
The research she draws on divides us into three categories — highly sensitive orchids, intermediately sensitive tulips, and lowly sensitive dandelions — and the book also includes its own test where you can find out where you fall.
The great thing is that it never points out high sensitivity as something to fix. Instead, it's about understanding yourself better, putting your needs into words, and finding concrete tools to feel good in a world that is rarely built for highly sensitive nervous systems. As much self-awareness as self-care.
A book to read with a highlighter close at hand — the kind of book you want to be able to flip back through.
A forward push from me,
Maria