how to deal with the world as a sensitive person

4 Steps to Managing Pain

4 Steps to Managing Pain

Have you had this experience? You read the newspaper or go online, and suddenly feel overwhelmed by the suffering and pain in the world?

Being a sensitive person, that can feel overwhelming.

So what do you do?

In 2019, I was in the Tigray region of Ethiopia shortly before what would become a civil war. Everywhere I went, I could feel the pain, the anger, frustration, tension. At times, it felt crippling. Because I could sense this pain but also felt helpless to solve it.

After sharing this experience with one of my teachers, the guidance I received was this. “You don’t have to fix the world, your job is to love the world.”

Since 2019, I’ve been working on understanding exactly what that means and how to do it.

For me, that process has involved: acceptance, forgiveness, prayer, and envisioning.

Here’s how it works: