The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

Closely related to containers, boundaries are a psychological means by which we can let into our consciousness what we want and shut out what we don’t want. For HSPs, it can be a helpful way to filter things so as to prevent overstimulation.

Containers are things, places, people, or ideas that provide a sense of inner safety. For the HSP in particular, containers provide protection against overstimulation. Aron recommends learning to see our body itself and the entire universe as containers, which will provide us a maximum sense of security.

A term borrowed from Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, the “persona” is a public-facing, often consciously crafted self, also sometimes referred to as a “mask” that allows the individual to move freely in society while retaining a degree of privacy. Individuals typically adopt multiple, overlapping personae, switching between them (or emphasizing some traits and deemphasizing others) in different social contexts.