#highly-sensitive

Michelle Williams is earning praise for her "bravura performance" in portraying Marilyn Monroe. What did she do as an artist to prepare?

Because highly sensitive people process things so thoroughly and notice so many subtleties and emotional meanings, we can easily put unusual things together.

This time of year is always filled with so much emotion, anxiety, anticipation, love, joy, worry...it’s sometimes hard to stay focused and boundaries tend to get very blurred more easily at this time a year.

Research and comments by creative people show that high sensitivity often accompanies creativity.

I always knew that I was very sensitive, but I didn’t realize that my highly sensitive nature had a specific cause.

What makes creative and highly sensitive people accept, and even welcome, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder or other mental illness?

The suffering of sensitive, creative people is real. But we don't require a diagnosis of mental illness in order to be taken seriously.

Being unusual and eccentric may be easier for some people. It may not be so easy for many of us who are different on account of being highly sensitive – but we can choose to embrace our exceptional qualities as valuable.