Loud sounds or smells, bright lights, crowding of people?High environmental sensitivity characterizes people who experience great stress in the face of certain social, physical and emotional stimuli around them; far from being anecdotal, this condition can alter both our productivity and our psychological balance.
John Dewey, a renowned American professor and psychologist, said that our well-being always depends on our adaptation to our social setting, any change, any small irregularities or frictions, creates in us immediate psychological and physiological instability.
“We have changed our environment so radically that we now have to change to exist. -Norbert Wiener-
For example, if we are in a very hot environment, we will feel bad and try to make sure that the temperature of that place suits our needs. Another example: if we walk at night on a dark, lonely street, and hear a few steps behind us, we will feel a sense of threat; a stimulus that our brain provides to issue an answer: run, make a call or go back and face the situation.
Now, when we talk about high environmental sensitivity, we are faced with a more specific type of experience, think of a scenario in which a group of people (for example, a work environment) feel comfortable, all but one, someone with a threshold. More sensitive to the sounds, conversations, light in this office and even that invisible veil where all the excitement is suspended?
The issue of high environmental sensitivity is not new, however curious it may seem, environmental psychology has been studying for decades how we relate to the environment around us, this interaction takes into account our body, our mind and also our culture.
Thus, authors such as Lazarus, Folkman and Cohen have developed a theoretical model, in which they explain that this sensitivity is based on a number of very specific conditions. Each of us has tolerance thresholds for certain stimuli; we cannot control them and we lack personal strategies to reduce their impact on us.
On the other hand, there are also other approaches that take into account our personality, for example, Harvard University was able to demonstrate that the brains of introverted people were characterized precisely by a high environmental sensitivity, on average an introverted personality style shows more attention to everyday details; often results in overload in case of excessive stimulation in the environment.
In addition, this excess of stimuli, whether auditory, visual, tactile, etc. , generates a higher level of stress and exhaustion, while not mentioning another important fact: for a very sensitive person, the emotions, anxieties, worries and fears of others are imbued with the atmosphere of the place, and not everyone knows how to filter them. This emotional contagion is another common phenomenon in people with high environmental sensitivity.
A relevant fact to consider about this psychological condition is that it is framed within a spectrum, that is, there will be people with greater sensitivity and others with a slightly more resistant threshold to these psychosocial stimuli around them. most common features:
We already know what environmental sensitivity is; Now, what can we do when he’s very strong?The answer to this condition is not to avoid what causes us stress. Besides, it’s not in our hands to control everything around us either. We can’t, for example, turn down traffic, ask people to stop talking or leave spaces. We cannot, in essence, bring order in certain environments characterized by hyperstimulation, unpredictability and anarchy.
The answer is not outside, it is within us; minimizing the impact of these stimuli on our mind and body. Therefore, to face hypersensitivity, nothing better than working on our emotional and sensory immunity.
In conclusion, we are all, in a way, sensitive to the environment around us, but the limit is that all these stimuli affect us as little as possible to allow us mobility, productivity, efficiency and, above all, well-being. We will learn how to put filters adapted to this sea of stimuli that always surrounds us.