Are you ready to dive deep?
Winter can be especially hard for highly sensitive people (HSPs). It’s colder, darker, and the holidays and associated travel can add stress, no matter how well you get along with your family. Continue reading “Have A Better Winter: Therapy Group for Highly Sensitive People (HSPs)”
Introducing my new practice name and logo.
You may have noticed some changes in this corner of the web as I’ve started to update my website with my new practice name (Quiet Moon Counseling) and getting my new logo onto the site. I’m grateful to have worked with graphic artist Jordan Gray, who seemed to pluck my vision right out of my head and create a simple logo which captures the nurturing and grounding presence I hope that my clients experience when working with me.
Moving doesn’t have to be a four letter word.
If you were to take a look around me at this very moment, you would see two crates of books, a pile of flattened cardboard boxes, a half-filled tote of towels and exercise gear, three empty suitcases, random toiletries strewn across the floor, and two paper bags of clothes patiently waiting to go to the thrift store.
In case you couldn’t deduce the obvious, I’m in the process of moving. Continue reading “7 Tips To Survive Moving As A Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)”
Given our ability to send correspondence in the blink of an eye, why should we bother with handwritten letters anymore?
Writing has become a ritual for me. I send letters to my close family, friends, and relatives. I write letters that I never send. I write letters when I feel inspired or sad or bored. I write letters when I need to feel connection – to myself or to others. I write letters when I need to remind myself of the beauty in the world, or to articulate the pain I see. I write letters as a means to slow down my thoughts and process the world around me. Continue reading “4 Ways to Reconnect To Your Soul By Writing Letters”
What is your best life worth to you?
Let’s be honest — sometimes it can be hard to pay for therapy.
How often do you tell your friend or co-worker the following: “I’m going to the gym today,” “I got a pedicure,” “I went to church/spiritual practice this weekend,” “I had all day to myself to relax,” or “I took a sick day.”
We say this daily to friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and store clerks without batting an eye. Continue reading “The Value of Therapy”
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Arianna Smith, MA, LPC
Travel is an essential part of modern life. We travel to see far-off family and friends, renew ourselves, get away from the day-to-day grind, serve others, and see the world.
For a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), travel can be inherently overwhelming. New smells and sensations can be both exciting and alarming. Unfamiliar routines require extra processing or planning. Different cultural expectations create more emotional stress or material to process. Jet lag and time zones can mess up an HSPs sensitive internal clock. It’s enough to make an HSP want to resign themselves to never leaving their zip code.
However, fear of overstimulation is not a reason for HSPs to avoid or limit travel. In fact, I would argue travel is essential for HSPs in order to deepen and enrich their lives – but it has to be done in a way that is both nourishing and mindful of HSP qualities. Continue reading “Travel Tips For Highly Sensitive People (HSPs): When Your Travel Companion Is Not Highly Sensitive”
Does anyone else feel like the world suddenly gets put into fast forward when the holidays start to come around? Come mid-November, I feel I am given a tremendous to-do list of holiday duties that are not even important to me.
1. Take advantage of Black Friday deals. 2. Find an ugly Christmas Sweater. 3. Watch ‘Love, Actually’ for the 30th time. 4. Learn how to make pumpkin rolls. 5. Realize that it’s now December and it’s too late to make pumpkin rolls. 6. Instead decide to learn how to make peppermint bark. 7. Get sucked into a Netflix abyss and spend the evening eating candy canes on the couch.
And it goes on.
While I have developed many ways to cope with overwhelm in most circumstances, the holidays can be a time that I run myself ragged. I find myself inundated with unrealistic expectations of myself and my time.
Not anymore, my friends. Here is how I have started to survive and enjoy (yes, actually enjoy) the holidays as an HSP. And you can, too. Continue reading “How I Survive (And Even Enjoy) The Holidays as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)”
Arianna Smith, LPC, IFS Certified Therapist 