Are you a high sensation-seeking HSP?

Does that question make you think of adrenaline sports and risk-taking?  Probably not things you naturally associate with being highly sensitive.

Maybe seeing High Sensation-Seeking (HSS) and HSP in the same sentence seems like a contradiction in terms?  Seeking stimulation when prone to over-stimulation!

Or you might have answered “Yes”?  Because you recognise these different parts of yourself.

Research has found that 30% of HSPs are also HSS.  You can take Elaine Aron’s HSS test here.

I remember being surprised to find HSS for HSPs includes wanting – even needing – novelty, variety and complexity.  And getting bored easily.

That made such sense of me to me: the need for new experiences and inspiration, and an internal system that gets overwhelmed and drained by too much activity and exertion.

It’s a delicate balance to strike.  Like ‘having one foot on the accelerator and one on the brake’.

Elaine Aron calls it “the battle of the temperaments”.  Her recent blog about how the two parts showed up in her on holiday made me laugh with resonance (scroll to ‘European Theater’ to find it).

Her earlier article – on giving equal love to both parts – provides tips and hope about how to manage the HSS and the HSP in you.  Each has its own needs.  The trick is to feed each … enough.

Lily Yuan’s article – “8 Signs You’re Highly Sensitive and High Sensation Seeking” might also make you smile and recognise something of yourself.

Her reference in the article to HSS HSPs experiencing life “several notches upward” also got me thinking …

As HSPs, we’re already ‘dialled in’ to sensation at a high level.  What it feels like to be accepted and welcomed.  To have deep conversations.  For something to touch your soul.

When you know how these feel, it’s sometimes hard to be satisfied with less.  HSPs live with this every day, whether HSS too or not.  Being HSS just magnifies it.

Back to HSS HSPs.  Try to make friends with both parts – the sensitive and the seeker.  Whether they’re in their element or struggling.  Needing fed or moderated in the moment.

Understanding, nurturing and managing each part is an investment in them and in you.  And it’s the key to less conflict and more balance.  Which you deserve.