 I turn on the TV for the news and an ever-growing wall of sound, with multi-tracking and discordant energy continues to feed itself into a frenzy throughout June and no doubt will be amping up to a cacophonous crescendo by July 4th. These energy frequency vibrations also permeate when not directly engaging with the political situation – they are all around, and sensitives pick up on them.
I felt the need to write a little about this, to help myself feel clearer ... One in five of us has a deeper Sensory Processing Sensitivity trait where stimuli in the environment can be more of a challenge; when you’re wired differently your responses are different and sometimes they’re inexplicable to others (and yourself, until you know more). As a happy Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), one who has largely found ways to manage and embrace this aspect of myself in everyday situations, it can still be a challenge when turning on the TV, the radio, reading headlines, social media and being faced with election politics. As a politically-minded teenager I felt the anxiety and overwhelm but didn’t realise it was my sensitivity on my side, showing me when I needed to disengage. Now I do disengage and find it harder and harder to engage with a media circus at all, however I still feel the same deep core values and have a passion for authenticity, truth and justice and in trusting my own intuition. It could be said that politics and elections bring out the worst in people: conflict, aggression, hostility, argument, fault-finding, point-scoring, put-downs, slights, playground tactics, self-righteousness …and on it goes and (grittily, painfully) flows until the country is flooded day and night. There’s still room for manipulation, cruelty, lies, lack of kindness, negativity, power-play, control, spin, deceit, fabrication, schadenfreude, bickering, fighting, backstabbing, taunts, jibes, dark sarcasm (and ‘light, jovial’ sarcasm too) and in this stew of discord and Shakespearian strutting and fretting, there is the Loudness too. In the voices, the incessant images, the politicians who are teetering and fearful on the brink, the smug ones, yet guarding closely against a final minute fall, the journalists, hacks, reporters, campaign warriors, meme-makers, and merry merry circus performers – the frantic frenzy of it all – and all of it a masking. HSPs feel deeply the truth behind the façade, the upset, the sadness, the reality behind the ‘game show’ style ‘debates’, the reality of both the state of many lives in the country, and the reality of the inadequacy of the politics, its rhetoric and soundbite all bound up in the name of democracy. For sensitives, authenticity and integrity are supreme and we feel them deeply and will always gratefully respond when we experience them in politics, yet they are often severely lacking. We also go beyond the binary into much more subtle depths, and so outcomes of debates such as ‘we win – you lose’ and ‘Starmer wins 64% to 36%’ all seems so ludicrous and dumbing down to nonsensical insanity, an instant poll maybe but really, judging what of substance? Zero-sum ‘debates’? No, we all lose. I keep seeing the image of the circus visitor in Franz Kafka’s ‘Up in the Gallery’ and empathising when, watching the ringmaster, woman and horse below, he ‘puts his face on the railing and, sinking into the final march as if into a difficult dream, weeps, without realising it.’ In a world where violence and conflict are reported every day, these mini-battles are reenacted on TV for entertainment on home turf. However, it’s not ‘entertainment’ for sensitives, but often toxic and insulting viewing. ‘What a million filaments. The peanut-crunching crowd/Shoves in to see’, and here too, I can’t help referencing Sylvia Plath and her lines in Lady Lazarus, a very different context, but an unthinking, chomping crowd bound up with watching something ultimately tragic. Surely, we need a new level of consciousness, to evolve a new political paradigm, just as Einstein said, ‘you cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.’ For HSPs reading this, you know how hard it can be trying to explain/elucidate this Sensory Processing Sensitivity to others, and you may not even know yourself why you might be feeling more despair, anxiety or stress at these times either, due to all the energies you’re picking up on around you. You might also be laughed at or dismissed if you try to explain it. Well, you don’t have to explain it, or anything else – let this go at least – a wonderful liberation in itself! (You will find many others who experience as you do when you discover more about HSPs and Empaths, if you haven’t already.) Peace and harmony and cooperation cannot come from conflict and HSPs cannot look to the news and keep themselves well at the same time. In moderation maybe, choosing several trusted news sources, and with healthy boundaries and limits, yes, and in remembering that ‘the news’ is just one story of the world. However compelling, seductive, urging it may claim to be, however you may be shamed or belittled if you go against the grain and say you choose not to have it so frequently in your life, you can choose peace in your body and your mind. We cannot help but be affected by these tangible energetics all around us during heightened times and so keeping peace within our own lives, and our bodies, is crucial; really this is our only role and all else unfolds from here. Sensory processing of conflict can be helped very much, with energies being moved through the body and released via many ways that HSPs typically love – through art, movement, music, poetry, literature, writing, meditation, holistic and somatic energy practices, being in nature, in beauty, with animals, walking and engaging with the earth and also with like-hearted others in true, authentic ways. Sensitives often feel overwhelmed by the world, flooded with so much confusing sensory stimuli but we do not need to experience this debilitating state. We can also learn to make use of, and welcome, the fears , discomfort and upset that conflict triggers, in order to overcome difficulties. It can also direct us to make self-care and self-kindness a priority. Perhaps for some, these times of high-octane drama are needed, in order to feel alive, as outer conflict can distract us from looking within at our own lives, numbing us from troubles for a while, yet the dramas are always a mirror of our own inner conflict – we project this all outwards but do not recognise ourselves up on the stage too when we watch, engage and judge others. For peace and wellbeing, when feeling external conflict, we can also connect with recognising what is always here – a quietness and stillness within, beyond the noise and clamour, a quiet that is unaffected and constant, the Yogic inner flame, the Buddhist essential nature – always untouched, unchanged within us. Our natural state is one of health, love, wholeness, peace and joy, and a sense of wonder that survives any transient external state or political situation. ‘There is a silence into which the world can not intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.’ (l.164) I love these words from A Course in Miracles… and from this place of ancient peace infinitely wiser choices can be made, not only regarding politics, but in every area of our lives. What a gift to ourselves, our families and the world - and how beautiful it would be if our politicians felt able to practise peace and stillness too. Useful resources: The Highly Sensitive Person, Aron, Elaine N. (2017). A Course in Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace, Combined Volume, Third Edition (2007).
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My feltings to illustrate an accompanying resource for a life-changing course |
