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Managing your energy can be a challenge at the best of times. But if you’re a highly sensitive person, you might be more prone to burning out due to your unique traits and the demands of your work.
Being highly sensitive doesn’t mean being touchy, but having a high degree of empathy and a particular way of processing sensory input. That means it might take longer to recover from a tricky situation like a conflict with a colleague, or witnessing something traumatic at work.
The key to managing energy as a highly sensitive person is to understand and embrace your sensitivity, and put strategies in place to protect and replenish your energy.
This week, Rachel talks with Dr Becki Taylor-Smith, an anaesthetist and coach who specialises in helping highly sensitive individuals discover their superpowers.
Around 1 in 5 people has high sensitivity. With this higher degree of empathy often comes the need to help people, which is why there may be many more people in medicine who identify as highly sensitive.
People who identify as highly sensitive make great leaders, but can be reluctant to step forward. So without support or strategies in place to help them harness their abilities, teams can miss out on the unique abilities they have.
But by setting small boundaries and incorporating self-care activities into their daily lives, highly sensitive people can be supported and encouraged to thrive in their own careers, and lead others.
Show links
More episodes of You Are Not a Frog:
- How to Thrive in a High-Stress Job When You’re Neurodivergent – Episode 179 with Matthew Bellringer
- Are Your Tiny Traumas Building Up to Burnout? – Episode 182, with Dr Claire Plumbly
Download the episode’s workbook and CPD form. You can use them for reflection and to submit for your appraisal.
About the guests
Reasons to listen
- To learn how to manage your energy effectively as a highly sensitive person in high-stress jobs.
- To discover strategies to prevent burnout and overwhelm while still making a unique difference.
- To understand the traits of highly sensitive people and how to embrace them as a superpower in leadership and teamwork.
Episode highlights
Traits of highly sensitive people
How to tell if you’re a highly sensitive person
When being highly sensitive can be a superpower
Highly sensitive people as leaders
The ABCs of managing your energy
How to protect yourself and your energy
Avoiding burnout due to sensory overload
How to support highly sensitive people
Becki’s top tips
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] Rachel: How did you feel the last time you encountered something upsetting? Did he put those feelings aside or shake them off? Did you take a few moments for yourself or did those thoughts and feelings eat away at you? If you’re like the 20% of people identified as highly sensitive, you might find it harder to shake off difficult experiences or those small T traumas we’ve talked about. That’s because highly sensitive people tend to have high levels of empathy. [00:00:27] If you work in medicine, you’re more likely to have a higher degree of empathy, which makes…
