*Unmute to hear the music too. A hermit crab walking against a sunset.
A Long-Distance Trip and a Time to Reset, After a While
I'd poured everything into launching FUUKA since the end of last year. Once the import process wrapped up safely, wanting to catch my breath, I headed to the southern island of Miyako with a friend.
A place you finally reach after switching from an express train to a plane, all the way from Nagano. Surrounded by beautiful nature and ocean, this island had long been a place I'd dreamed of visiting.
How I Face My Sensitive Senses
As an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person), my senses are very sharp. My hearing, sight, and smell in particular are hypersensitive, and in crowds or enclosed spaces, I end up absorbing other people's emotions and thoughts, more and more.
・ The impatience of someone holding it in, waiting for the bathroom
・ The irritation of the person next to me
・ The unconscious gaze or feelings of someone scrolling through people on their phone
Even things like this come flooding in naturally.
That's exactly why, even while traveling, I go fully equipped with earphones and a mask. Preparing to retreat back into my own world is never optional for me.
A Perspective on Scent and "Sensory Boundaries"
Over these past few years my senses have grown even sharper, and after going through a serious illness, a sensitivity emerged that I can no longer just brush off as "my imagination."
But after encountering De Groene Linde's aromas, I learned that whether I like or dislike a scent can be a clue to my own state, and that shifted how I see things a little.
Maybe I've been sensitively reacting, through scent, to the differences in atmosphere between different places and spaces.
If so, then by having a scent that suits me as an ally, couldn't I gently draw a boundary between myself and the outside world? ― That's how I've come to see it.
The Difference Between the Netherlands and Japan in Understanding HSPs
In the Netherlands, HSCs (Highly Sensitive Children) are allowed to use noise-canceling headphones at school. There's an environment where they can control outside stimuli themselves, in order to focus.
But what about Japan?
Even as adults, wearing earphones or earplugs can sometimes get you seen as "not focused."
In truth, some people need to block things out precisely because they focus too intensely.
What It Means for a Sensitive Person to Travel
What I felt again on this trip to Miyako Island was that "sensitivity" needs preparation. And that it's okay to borrow the power of scent and other tools to protect that side of yourself.
Today too, I put my earphones in and retreat back into my own world.
Settling my quiet inner world, with the help of scent.
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