How to Protect Your HSP Heart Right Now
“Growing Sensitive & Strong” is the life-changing program that moves you from “What’s wrong with me?” to comfortable and confident in who God made you as a Highly Sensitive Person.
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Back in my college days, I saw a movie about a robot named “Johnny 5” who came to life and started reading everything he could get his hands on.
In a scene that resonated deeply with me, Johnny 5 stood amongst a shocking disarray of books strewn all over the floor and explained the mess he’d made with two simple words:
“Need input!”
I understood Johnny 5’s frantic quest for more information.
More and More Information
A few years after seeing Short Circuit, I attended my very first writers conference.
I sat transfixed, soaking up everything The Experts taught me.
Then I went home, tried to apply everything I’d learned, and failed miserably.
So I signed up for another conference. Where, once again, I sat spellbound, scribbling notes as The Experts told me The One-Size-Fits-All Way to Do All the Things.
Home I went, where I tried to apply everything I’d learned … once again failing … this time, even more miserably than before.
For decades, I repeated this demoralizing (and costly!) cycle for one key reason:
I thought what I needed was more information.
Too Much Information
Sound at all familiar?
Especially with everything that’s happening in the world right now?
My life-long response to insecurity (or worry or anxiety or fear or … !) has been to seek out more information by …
… buying more books.
… signing up for more workshops.
… attending more conferences.
… scrolling more social media.
… following more links.
… watching more videos.
… reading more articles.
… subscribing to more blogs / newspapers / podcasts.
None of which are bad or wrong, in and of themselves. The problem is how quickly my information collection habit morphs into a compulsion.
Here’s what I’ve finally realized:
Collecting more and more information is overwhelming … exhausting … and downright paralyzing.
Turns out, I’m not Johnny 5.
Neither are you.
You’re not a robot; you’re a Highly Sensitive Person.
And as an HSP, instead of more information, you actually need far less.
Here’s how a fellow HSP put it in a recent email:
The glut of information out there paralyzes HSPs in decision-making. Lately the word overload has been in my thoughts a lot … I realized it is really information overload that has been slowing me down and disturbing my spirit. So hard to escape these days; it takes a real commitment to avoid it! …
I need to unplug for a while, as best I can. We may have been socially isolated but the media has by no means stopped its relentless invasion. Proverbs 4:23 says to above all else, guard your heart, for out of it flow the wellsprings of life.
There it is: what your HSP heart actually needs:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
Guard. Your. Heart.
To protect your heart from the onslaught of more and still more and ever more information, pray-cess this simple formula:
Less time _____________, more time _____________.
Right now, the Holy Spirit is convicting me that I need:
“Less time engaged on social media, more time immersed in God’s word.”
What goes in these blanks for you?
Just found your site today and totally agree with all you’ve said. That verse has been my phone wallpaper for a long time, I rarely watch news, and don’t do social media. Glad to know I’m not alone!
Thanks Cheri for this and all your posts. I really really appreciate your humbleness not to claim that one recipe works for all, but that you encourage every HSP to find ones own way!
Yes, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Thankfully, the bible provides so much wisdom for all of us. In regard to the media, it’s their mission to be the loudest, most forceful in order to gain your attention, so they’ll beat a dead horse over and over and when something new “breaks”, they will dramatize it into something more than it is. I stopped TV service entirely decades ago and it’s really freeing for lots of reasons. (For entertainment, I have ROKU and subscribe to a couple ad-free movie/TV show providers.)
Hi Chery
I need less Time to control everithing and the best méthode to read my bible and more time to just live or read my bible without a technique.
Thank you Cheri, just what I needed to read. I do not a Facebook and do not watch the news. Too overwhelming for me, but I do google information which can be even worse sometimes.
Hi Cheri. I am very particular about the information I allow or else I begin to feel overwhelmed. I get my news from sources I trust and try to get it from the original source instead of what some talking head thinks about it. I do not watch many videos because I would rather read and then I can shut it down fast and not have images going through my head. And same goes for friends, real and Facebook ones. I will not allow the evil in the world to enter my life as I have chosen life and not death! Blessings to you. Beth from Florida