This week, I want to share three books that might be helpful if you’re a highly sensitive woman. These are books to spark your imagination & one might even help you navigate your emotional landscape.
Paying attention to the ebb and flow of our energy during the month can help as as HSPs and as sensitive, creative women.
Over the past several months, I have been reading some books on women’s health. I have also been reading books specifically about tuning in to our moods and emotions at different times during our menstrual cycles. Both as an HSP and as a woman, I find that I approach things in a circular manner. My energy ebbs and flows. At certain times, I can do some things more easily. At certain times, I like being out and about physically. Then, there are those days in the month when I just want to go inwards.
As an INFP woman and sensitive creative, I have often judged this tendency and tried to emulate the masculine-on-crack “producing all the time” mentality. But that really doesn’t work for me both as an HSP and as a woman. I think my process is very cyclic. In my writing life, I have embraced this by using a mosaic form of writing. This means that I often have an outline for longer pieces. But then, I pick and choose whatever sub-topic calls to me that day (whether it’s something in the beginning or something towards the end of a piece, that does not matter) and write on it. I was introduced to this by writer and writing coach Lauren Sapala. (You might like to check out this interview I did with Lauren here. In it, we talk about this more feminine way of writing that suits INFP and other intuitive writers.)
Some time ago, I also started thinking about how I discount my body and the cyclical hormonal changes it goes through in a month. Obviously, this affects my energy. Why, then, do I discount it? I decided to learn more about this.
One of the books that I have recently read about the menstrual cycle is the fun and informative Code Red by Lisa Lister.
Code Red is a light read but it will give you enough information to get started. Lisa includes real-life experiences of women who have started paying attention to the waxing and waning of their energy and how that has helped them. If you feel “charmed and dangerous” during your pre-menstrual period, as Lisa puts it, if you are angry, tearful or overwhelmed, you will find help in this book. This book takes us through all the phases of the cycle, and tells us about both our challenges and our super-powers during that specific phase. (If you are looking for an even more detailed book on women’s bodies, check out the classic Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northrup.)
So, here are the things I have noticed till now.
My dreams are especially intense during my periods. It’s as if the curtain between this world and the unconscious becomes thinner a few days before my periods. As an HSP who pays attention to my dreams, this is a good thing to know. If you are having trouble with dream recall, you might find this useful too. (If you are interested in working with your dreams, check out this post on how to get started and this post on what dream images mean.)
I am also noticing that during pre-menstruation (this is the third phase of your cycle and if your egg wasn’t fertilized during ovulation, roughly from day 23 through to when your period starts), I actually want to edit my work. It feels easier to go through my writing and cut out things and move them around. But this seems to change just a few days before my period starts. Then, I feel irritated by doing this mundane work. I think I want to just sit and almost receive insights. It’s not that I can’t do things, but it really angers me to write (or do other things) in that same linear way that feels okay during ovulation. I feel like I need to receive insights and then put these insights into my work as a creative and highly sensitive person. This phase starts from a few days before my periods and includes my periods. I need to shift from the “production” mindset to the “unraveling” and “receiving inspiration” mindset. This is also a good time to let things go. I want to start a practice around this, maybe write down and burn things or just clear some clutter.
What about you? Do you play attention to how your needs change during the month? As a sensitive creative woman or an empath, how could paying attention to this cycle of change benefit you? As both HSPs and women, we have lost touch with the feminine way of doing things that might come more naturally to us – ebbing and flowing, working and letting go.
The other two books that I want to share are both by Tess WhiteHurst. These are fun, evocative books that might give you some inspiration as an HSP or as an INFP sensitive creative.
The first is The Magic of Flowers which talks about the energetic qualities of flowers. Tuning in to subtle energies can be easy for us as empaths or highly sensitive people, so why don’t we use this to nurture us?
Our sense of smell is so nourishing and so grounding. It can help us connect to our roots and nurture ourselves as HSPs and sensitive creatives.
In this season of spring, it feels like the right time to talk about The Magic of Flowers. Smell takes us right back to where we came from. Jasmine, or raat ki raani, the queen of the night, as it is called in Hindi, takes me back to languorous nights in India as a child, when jasmine bloomed in the rich velvet of the night. Lavendar reminds me of my beloved naani, my maternal grandmother, who smelled exactly like that. My little pouch of lavendar is a litte bit of her fragrance. The last time I went to India, some years back, I mostly bought essential oils – lotus and magnolia and Krishna musk. These are the smells of my childhood. (You might like to read this post on how bringing in the beauty of my childhood helped me as an HSP adjusting to life in a new country.)
Added to these known fragrances are fragrances that attract me now as a highly sensitive person. One of them is geranium. In The Magic of Flowers, Tess talks about how geranium is heart-healing and closely associated with feminine energy. No wonder that it’s calling to me right now as an HSP looking for more balanced ways of being. Whether you like daisies, irises or marigolds, you will find clues about the nature of flowers and their energetic essence in this lovely book. It’s also a beautiful book to give to a flower-lover or flower-arranger in your life.
The third book is Magical Fashionista.
Magical Fashionista is a fun, imaginative book for sensitive, creative women. For me, fashion is about playing and expressing beauty. I found Whitehurst’s book amazingly specific at some points. For example: I love polka dots and she actually mentions what group of people actually like polka dots! I tend towards what I call “simple but abundant” nowadays and don’t shop a lot, but beauty is very important to me. There’s an attraction in things that mean something to us at a soul level. If you are attracted to some amber earrings, maybe, it’s because amber is a “creativity” stone and the color amber is associated with energy that helps you be more creative. As a Harry Potter fan, I love my little owl scarf. It’s fun to be surrounded by things you like, things you resonate with. It’s about energy, and as an empath or HSP, this energetic resonance will feel very nourishing to you.
I hope one or more of these books resonated with you as a sensitive creative. If you are looking for some more book recommendations that you might enjoy as an HSP or empath, check out this previous post.
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