High Sensitivity & Yin Yoga
You’re not
too sensitive
Your sensitivity isn’t the problem. The problem is that you’re almost never given the chance to settle.
Does this sound familiar?
“
You can hear the fridge humming while no one else notices it at all.
“
You walk into a room and immediately sense that something’s off, before anyone has said a word.
“
And at night in bed, that one remark from a few days ago suddenly resurfaces, as if it had been waiting for you.
You probably know this. And you probably know the other side of it too. That you’re too sensitive. That you shouldn’t take it so personally. That it could all use a notch less.
Maybe you’ve heard it so often that somewhere you started believing it yourself. That something about you isn’t quite right. That you only really fit in once you feel a little less.
I’d like to offer you something different today.
01
What is high sensitivity, really?
High sensitivity isn’t an illness. It’s not a diagnosis either. It’s simply one way a person’s nervous system can be wired. Elaine Aron, an American psychologist, began researching it in the 1990s, and we now know a great deal more about it.
1 in 5
people have a nervous system that lets in more, and stays with it longer
Letting more in
Sounds, atmospheres, the look on someone’s face, the tension in a room. It all comes in for you, while someone else simply walks past it.
Processing longer
It stays with you. You’re still thinking about it long after everyone else has moved on.
There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s simply how your system works. And in a calm place, it’s even something beautiful. You notice the small things. You read people well. You experience things more deeply than most. But in a world that keeps buzzing and beeping and pinging, that same quality becomes heavy. Not because you’re too much. But because there are so few moments where you actually get to recover from everything that came in that day.
02
The advice you’ve probably already heard
And here’s where something goes sideways. Because almost everything a sensitive person gets told comes down to the same thing. Toughen up.
Set more boundaries.
Be harder on yourself.
Grow a thicker skin.
Let it slide off you.
I understand where that comes from, and boundaries really do matter, no question. But underneath it sits a message that hurts. Namely, that your sensitivity is something you need to get past. As if you’re only truly grown up once you’ve learned to push yourself down a little.
And many sensitive people have become remarkably good at that. Carrying on while your body has long since said it’s enough. Keeping the smile on in a room that’s actually too much for you. Overriding yourself again and again, because that’s just how it’s done.
The harder you push something down,
the harder it comes back up.
Taoist wisdom
And that’s exactly how it feels. It comes back. As exhaustion. As a short fuse. As the sense that somewhere along the way you lost yourself.
A sensitive system doesn’t need armor. It needs a place where, for a while, it doesn’t have to do anything at all.
03
Why Yin Yoga fits a sensitive system
Which is exactly why Yin Yoga feels like coming home for so many sensitive people.
Not because yin fixes your sensitivity. It doesn’t. And it doesn’t need to, because there’s nothing here to fix.
But yin is one of the few places where no one asks you to move past yourself. There’s no pace to keep up with. No pose that needs to look good. You settle into a shape, you stay a while, and the only thing asked of you is to listen to what your body has to say today.
Your edge is the measure. Not the woman’s next to you on the mat. Not the teacher’s.
If you’ve spent your whole life hearing that you should tone it down, that’s a strange, beautiful experience. In a yin class, your sensitivity is suddenly no longer a burden. It’s exactly where things begin. The better you feel, the more precisely you notice: here it’s good, here I can go a little deeper, here I’m pulling back a little.
The InnerPower Method
LAND • BREATHE • FEEL
LAND
First, you get to land. Feel the ground beneath you. Take your time. Know that nothing has to happen.
BREATHE
Your breath is allowed to soften. You don’t need to do anything with it. It quietens on the inside by itself.
FEEL
From that ground, feeling becomes something quite different from being swept under. You’re not going under. You’re present.
For a sensitive person, this is strong FEEL, carried by LAND. And that might be the real difference from the rest of your day. Everywhere else, the world comes flooding in. On the mat, for once, you get to go back to yourself.
Something small for today
You don’t need to unroll a mat for this
1
Pick a moment when you notice a lot is coming at you. A crowded shop, a head that’s overflowing, a conversation that keeps echoing.
2
Stand or sit for a moment. Feel your feet on the ground. Let your breath soften a little.
3
Then say to yourself: I don’t have to process all of this right now. I get to land first.
That’s all it is. One moment where you don’t move past yourself, but stay with yourself. That’s where it starts.
Not once. Again and again.
04
If you want to go further
One more thing I’d like to share. Many of the people who take my Yin Yoga Teacher Training are highly sensitive themselves. That’s no coincidence. People who feel a lot also tend to read others well. Sensitive people often become facilitators, precisely because they’re so finely attuned to what’s happening in a room.
But something needs to come first. You can only offer others calm and safety once you’ve learned to take care of your own system. That’s exactly what the training teaches. Not only how to teach, but also how to stay grounded while guiding a group. Your sensitivity then stops being something you constantly have to keep in check, and becomes the very thing you work with.
Frequently asked questions
High sensitivity and Yin Yoga
Is high sensitivity a condition or a diagnosis?
No. High sensitivity is a temperament, not a disorder or diagnosis. It describes a nervous system that notices stimuli more strongly and processes them more deeply. Researcher Elaine Aron was the first to map this out in the 1990s. There’s nothing about you that needs fixing.
How do I know if I’m highly sensitive?
Many highly sensitive people recognize this: you notice sounds, atmospheres, and moods that others miss, you need time to recover after a busy day, and experiences stay with you longer. It’s not a test you pass or fail, more a recognition. Roughly one in five people has this temperament.
Why is Yin Yoga well suited to highly sensitive people?
Yin Yoga is slow, without performance and without a pace to keep up with. Your own edge is the measure. For a sensitive system, which processes stimuli all day long, that’s one of the few places where it doesn’t have to do anything. Yin doesn’t fix your sensitivity, and it doesn’t need to. It gives you space and tools to live with it.
Can a highly sensitive person become a yoga teacher?
Absolutely. Many participants in House of InnerPower’s Yin Yoga Teacher Training are highly sensitive themselves. People who feel a lot also tend to read others well. The condition is that you first learn to take care of your own system, and that’s exactly part of the training.
About the author
Ilse-Marie Sobering is the founder of House of InnerPower and developer of the InnerPower Method: LAND • BREATHE • FEEL. She trains people and facilitators in this method, working with styles such as Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, breathwork, Qigong, and meditation. Her trainings take place in the Netherlands and Spain, are Yoga Alliance accredited, and House of InnerPower is CRKBO-registered.
Source
Aron, E. N. & Aron, A. (1997). Sensory-processing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(2). doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.2.345. The first scientific study to describe high sensitivity (sensory-processing sensitivity) as a temperament trait.
This blog shares scientific insight and practical experience, and is not medical or therapeutic advice. If something has been weighing on you for a long time, it’s good to have someone assess your personal situation.
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Ilse-Marie Sobering is the founder of House of InnerPower and the creator of the InnerPower Method: LAND • ADEM • VOEL (Land, Breathe, Feel), a cyclical practice of returning to yourself again and again. She has studied yoga philosophy and Eastern philosophy for more than 25 years, and has worked professionally since 2015 as an E-RYT 500 yoga and Yoga Nidra teacher, mindfulness and breathwork coach, Ayurveda practitioner and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) practitioner. In Spain, where she lived for seven years, she taught trainings, teacher trainings and retreats at various locations in the Málaga region, including near Periana, Nerja and Frigiliana. She now works from the Netherlands, teaching trainings and speaking in the Netherlands, in Spain and online. Within the method she works with Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, breathwork, meditation, Qigong and somatic work, complemented with elements from her hypnotherapy training. She teaches teacher trainings, continuing education and company training, for people living with long-term stress and for professionals who want to deepen the way they guide others.
