To my dear readers:
Happy New Year! I hope 2025 brings you and yours all good things. And, unlikely as it appears at this moment, I hope the world somehow becomes a safer, more peaceful, more harmonious place for all of its inhabitants this year.
If you have been reading these articles for a while, thank you for your faithful support. When I write, I often begin by describing challenges we HSPs (highly sensitive people) face, but I always go on to offer insights and practical strategies I hope you can use to better care for your sensitive self. You’ve let me know that this combination of insight and practical suggestions really is helpful to you. Your appreciative feedback energizes me to keep writing.
If you’ve only just arrived, welcome! I invite you to check out the Sustainably Sensitive blog. If you’d told me in 2015 that I’d have written over 200 articles by now, I’d hardly have believed it, but…they are all there! You’ll find all manner of sensitivity-related information and shared experiences, ranging from the basics of the HSP trait to articles about specific topics like fatigue, managing intense emotions, self-regulation for overarousal, cultivating a kinder inner relationship with yourself, and much more.
To get started, take a look at the right sidebar of the blog page. You’ll find a list of articles that have proved most popular with readers. Scrolling down from there, you’ll see an index of topics so you can customize your search. Or just type “sustainablysensitive.com” in your browser, followed by the topic or phrase you want to search. Google will come up with a list for you. Whenever I send you a newsletter, I post the article on the blog that same day, so you can always rediscover articles there.
Looking back: my enduring philosophy
In honor of the new year, I’d like to share with you the text that appeared on the homepage of my very first website, Luminos. At that time—it was 2007— I’d been practicing Inner Bonding® for a few years, but I wasn’t certified yet, and I didn’t begin my training in Focusing until several years later.
In other words, I didn’t have big chunks of the “how” in place. Even so, on that home page, I somehow expressed the essence of the “what”—that is, the approach that still guides my life and my work with clients:
Problems dissolve as awareness expands
Know your intent…transform the energy of your interactions
Observe without judging…transform your thinking
Imagine possibilities…transform your reality
Trust your wisdom and surrender…transform your way of being in the world
I could put these words on the homepage of my website today. They would still be perfectly accurate. I have many more tools now to live this way myself and to help others do the same. But the philosophy hasn’t changed.
You are a unique expression of Spirit
The Luminos home page ended like this:
You are a unique expression of spirit. The full expression of this unique self leads to a life of joy, creativity, integrity, and effective contribution. Your gifts are urgently needed now on this planet, where so much suffering exists. Learn how to live from your core essence and highest wisdom, in an environment of compassion and unconditional acceptance…
I think we can all agree that the level of suffering in the world is intense. As HSPs, we are keenly open to the suffering of others, and we have our own suffering to deal with, whatever it is. How do we live our lives in the world as it is? We need to have an answer to this question.
The principles laid out on my old home page are my answer. To live my life well in the world as it is, I strive for clarity of intent. I practice radical acceptance of “what is.” I try to cultivate imaginative openness. And most important of all, I do everything I can, every day, to stay connected to my spiritual guidance—that deeper knowing that every HSP has and can tap into.
What comes up for you reading this? I would love to know what is on your mind, or in your heart, as we enter this new year. It doesn’t have to be about what I wrote…it’s whatever is alive in you. You can post in the comments section of the blog, or just email me at emily@sustainablysensitive.com.
A final request for you
If I could make one wish come true this year for this newsletter, it would be to have it read by more people. We are all drowning in a deluge of AI-generated content which is created by scraping original sources, articles like mine. For that reason, I believe it’s more important than ever for us to support content creators whose work we respect and value, by subscribing directly to their work. If you have friends and loved ones who you think would value these articles, please consider sharing the newsletter with them and suggest they subscribe.
Thank you, and thanks again for reading!
P.S. Arjuna has been adopted to a farm, with another cat (if you are new, his story is in my last three posts.) He can now hunt outside to his silvery heart’s content. Giving him up—on Christmas Eve, ouch—was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But he is a happy, healthy cat now, with what sounds like a perfect home for his needs. Thanks for your kind sympathy around that wonderful, rich, and heartbreaking experience.
Image: ©2025 Emily Agnew
