To the Anxious, Sensitive, Easily Overwhelmed Overthinkers: An Open Letter From Nature

I made you like this one purpose. Don't be like the others.

📝Mentions (not necessarily in order): the somewhat presumptuous but well-intentioned anthropomorphised voice of Nature; a treatise on the perilous subjugation of the overthinkers; the mess that monothinking has wrought; the resplendent quetzal (you must look this bird up); a humble invitation; a smattering of clues, etc.

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Hello my darlings

It’s me, Nature. The one with the sunsets, the fungi networks, the hurricanes and the amazing birds all over the world. I mean, have you ever seen a resplendent quetzal? If I do say so myself, I, Nature am rather spectacular.

Anyway. We need to talk.

Yes, you, my dear restless one.

You, with your endless thoughts, your deep care and your relentless need to figure it all out.

You think (because you are told) that you're too much. Too sensitive, too anxious, too complicated. They tell you:

"You're overthinking it"

"You are so sensitive!"

"You worry too much!"

"Just relax!"

You think that you're different. That you're not like the others. You feel like you don't fit in, that you don't belong in this world.

Of course you think that.

You are different.

You're not meant to fit in here. You're not meant to belong here, darling.

This world is not for you.

This world has been built without you. And. Wow. It shows. What a mess.

Let me be very, very, very, very, very clear here—you’re not the problem.

I made you exactly like you are on purpose and you are a crucial part of this planet.

You humans are an extraordinarily social species, with some saying that it's your ability to communicate and collaborate that has given you so much...well, 'success' is the word you all use, but my version of 'success' is quite different ...but let’s carry on.

Your ability to communicate and collaborate "successfully" relies on the diversity amongst your species of how you think, process, and experience the world. It’s these differences that make connection and shared understanding possible.

I made sure that the human species have, sprinkled amongst them, those who care deeply. Those who think a lot, feel intensely, respect uncertainty and make space for possibilities rather than rushing to control every outcome. Like you, my dear.

But you've been ignored.

You’ve probably spent most of your life being told to tone it down, toughen up, stop thinking so much, stop worrying and to just get on with it.

You lot, with your sensitivity, your different ways of seeing, your complexity, and your hot, busy, active, fertile minds, are vital for the diversity of humanity.

But somewhere along the way, your species decided that one way of being—loud, fast, competitive, “rational”—was the only way to be. Your kind built a world that glorifies and amplifies the shouty. And the shiny. And the shameless. And in the process you dismissed and suppressed the quiet, the thoughtful, and the tender.

VERY BIG MISTAKE, HUMANS.

Diversity is absolutely essential. I am showing you this all the time.

Diversity is kinda my thing. It’s the key to health, resilience, balance, beauty. Diversity is everything. From ecosystems to gene pools to ways of thinking.

Diversity is what keeps life alive.

What a frickin’ mess

But your species ignored the need for diversity. Your species ignored my rules of reciprocity and balance. You ignored my rules for interdependence. You ignored my rules for protecting life-sustaining systems. You ignored my rules for sharing, sufficiency and responsibility.

Now look around at the globalised, homogenous society that's been built without your input, fuelled by frenzied extraction and monstrous exploitation. The dominating humans did not respect, honour and include other ways of thinking, seeing, knowing, or being. Other bodies and minds have been ignored, suppressed or extinguished entirely.

Your kind has dismissed wisdom rooted in intuition, experience, and relationship. Your kind has sidelined those who spoke for the unseen, the slower, the softer. Your kind has treated diversity and differences not as the essential, fundamental feature of life itself, but as something to 'correct', flatten or suppress.

And what a mess the humans have made.

And...now...well...they need you to help. Although they might not know it yet.

But you are tremendously brilliant (even if you don’t feel it)

Sensitive? Of course you are. I made you that way on purpose. Sensitivity is not a weakness. It’s an extraordinary power. You, my sensitive ones, are the early warning system. You notice the subtle shifts, the imbalance, the quiet cries long before anyone else. You pay attention.

Overthinking? OF COURSE YOU ARE. Although it looks to me like you are thinking the required amount and that perhaps the others are underthinking. Of course you will be thinking a ton when you try to process a world stuffed with contradictions, chaos, and an endless stream of artificially lit nonsense, making pings and pings and dings all the time.

Anxious? Of course you are. It’s your body’s natural response to a world that’s wildly unnatural.

Easily overwhelmed? Well, of course you are! See the pattern here? Your species has created an environment so far removed from the rhythms I designed that I’m surprised you’re not all lying face down in a field somewhere, begging for help. Although, you kinda are, in a way.

What I need you to know

Oh gosh, I need you to know you are just so darn amazing and utterly crucial, you have no idea. The world needs you.

The world needs your caution, your care, your complexity. It needs your unique way of seeing patterns others miss, your ability to notice the nuances and your relentless pursuit of answers no one else thought (or cared) to ask. It needs people who think before they act, who feel deeply, who think creatively.

You’ve been made to feel weird, awkward, out of place and ashamed for these gifts. This has to stop.

The problem is a world so disconnected from natural rhythms and reciprocity that it calls wisdom “weakness” and sensitivity “overreaction.” The problem is a system that demands constant compliance, leaving people burnt out, overwhelmed, and numb.

But you? You’re part of the next bit. The response. The "great turning" as one of my beings, Joanna Macy might say. Your sensitivity, your anxiety, your overwhelm are not defects, but I know the world makes you feel like they are. Trust me, I made you.

Don't be like the rest of them

Stop apologising for who you are. Stop contorting yourself to fit into a world that wasn’t designed with you in mind.

Find the spaces that honour slowness, kindness, and connection. Where diversity is insisted upon and celebrated. Where sensitivity is gratefully accepted.

The places and spaces and people you need are out there, but it might require a change in your internal orientation to start *seeing* them. After a lifetime of thinking you don't fit in, or that you are broken in some way, a shift in the way you see yourself may be required. A simple place to start might be to start saying ‘no’ to environments that drain you.

There are many others like you and they will help you. One of my sensitive beings, Siobhán, has a podcast episode (her show has my name in the title! She’s such a fan-girl, it’s embarrassing really) on this very topic if you want to check it out.

She’s inviting people like you to get together for a playshop (a workshop but more fun, she says) to help see your way of thinking as a strength and how to channel it in a way that serves you as an asset, in the context of a world which isn’t built to support you. Or something like that.

She’ll tell you about it herself. She’s definitely overthinking it. But she is fiercely determined to who you that you have many gifts that are dismissed in this world. You see connections and possibilities others miss, but that can feel overwhelming in a world that wants quick answers. Anyway, you can pop your name down here for details.

Trust me, dear one

You are part of me, Nature, and you are a completely and wondrously unique fractal of the natural world.

You are absolutely spectacular to me and I made you the way you are for a reason.

I’ve been running the show for 4.5 billion years. I know what I’m doing.

Let’s get to it, my loves.

In reciprocity, responsibility and regeneration,

Nature

P.S. Next time you’re feeling the heavy burden of your gifts, take a walk. I left reminders everywhere of the life-affirming beauty of diversity.