The Arts and Voice as a Channel for Emotional Sensitivity

There is an innate need in humans to express the depth of our experience and it is incredibly important especially if you are an emotionally sensitive person. How do you know if you are emotionally sensitive?

According to Karyn D. Hall, PhD, there are several traits of emotionally sensitive individuals. I will go over some of these. People who are emotionally sensitive feel emotions intensely which includes really great ones and really unpleasant ones. This vacillation can make finding peace challenging much of the time. I often feel I am at the mercy of my emotions because I never know how I might be feeling at any given time. It can feel unpredictable.

Emotionally sensitive people also are very alert and cognizant of the emotions of other individuals. Others’ actions and words and even nonverbal communication can highly influence your feelings. One way this shows up for me is a constant hypervigilance. I am often feeling into others’ verbal and nonverbal communication almost unconsciously, which can be exhausting and overactivating. I remember, for example, being at work as a speech therapist in the hospital, and feeling completely drained after seeing only my first two patients because I was so intensely tuned in to their emotional states, possibly even more than they were. This trait can be a useful tool at times because it can give you empathy and insight; however, it can feel draining if you feel responsible for others’ states or if your nervous system is always activated in the sympathetic state due to a heightened fear/anxiety response. Having alone time can help, but even when you are alone, you still might hold on to emotional experiences and engage with them mentally which continues to affect you.

Emotionally sensitive people may both appreciate their emotions at times and at other times feel “out of control” and at the mercy of their emotions. Often, shame is associated with being emotional. I remember times as a child when I was crying due to an overwhelming emotion and being scolded for crying by my teachers or expressing overwhelming sadness and being told the ways I needed to solve the problem instead of being sad about it. I learned that my emotions were not safe to express so I spent a lot of time hiding them to not upset others.

If you want to learn about additional traits, including some of the positive traits, check out Dr. Hall’s book, The Emotionally Sensitive Person: Finding Peace When Your Emotions Overwhelm You. Honestly, it has been a game-changer for me. Just the instructions on mindfulness practices have been hugely helpful, but it goes into depth on the different ways to cope with emotions.

Now, why is it so important to have an outlet for your emotions. One trait that goes along with emotional sensitivity is creativity. Because emotionally sensitive people feel things intensely, it can provide an avenue for expressing creatively. I have always connected to music, dance, and theater, and have long appreciated visual arts. Anything artistic feeds my soul and my voice has literally saved my life.

I want to take some examples from the realm of the musician. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the music of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain’s story. As a teenager, I really resonated with Nirvana’s dark, angsty music. There was something there in the disillusionment of Capitalism in the 1990’s. In the 90’s there was so much material focus that I believe Generation X and early Millenials felt somewhat “lost”. Why wasn’t it fulfilling to be in a place where happiness was the next purchase away? What was this empty existential loneliness? Nirvana’s music spoke to this confusion. Although, I do not know his complete story, I do remember reading that Kurt Cobain expressed frustration with his intense Pisces placements in his astrological chart. Pisces is a very spiritually connected sign that feels things intensely, both the highs and the lows. Kurt Cobain felt things deeply, and you could hear it in his music. At the end of the album, Nevermind, there is a “hidden” track which is about 7 minutes of primal screaming and growls, and you can’t even understand the words. You can hear the sheer agony, rage, and underlying surrender to his experience in his voice. I remember I couldn’t listen to it as a kid, but now as an adult, even though it is still hard to hear as an empath, I understand those emotions because I too have felt them deeply.

Although music could not save Kurt from taking his own life, I wonder if he had been able to let go of the drugs somehow, he might have been able to use music as part of his healing process. We won’t know, but what his story teaches is us the absolute visceral need for expression, especially for people who are emotionally sensitive. I know that my connection to music has been my lifeline many times.

I now believe that music and singing is not for just the musician anymore. Creativity, whether it is in the form of visual art, theater, song, poetry, dance, etc…It’s for everyone. Anyone can benefit from any of these forms of expression and anyone can sing. Notice I did not say “learn to sing”. You can sing. You did it as a child. You made all kinds of noises, you probably hummed to yourself and sang children’s songs without abandon and it felt good. It connected you to the pre-verbal voice, the voice of expressing the experience of being human in a natural world, imitating bird song and the experience of hunting or mating or resting in a quiet glade with just pure physical vocal and movement expression. Remember that the voice is part of the body and is not separate from it. You use your whole body to make sound. I also believe that pre-verbal humans had access to spiritual consciousness and expressed it through song before words even developed.

If you identify as an emotionally sensitive person, I encourage you to express yourself by singing a favorite song, making sounds, making art or writing - any way you feel called. And if your voice has been calling to you, I am here to help. Thanks for reading and I hope something in this article was helpful to you.

Lots of love - Meera