With my upcoming book, Spirituality Through a Highly Sensitive Lens: An Objective Look at Meditation Methods and Enlightenment (coming out this April), I’ll be sharing two parts in each blog post—the first will explore research, HSP news, and current insights, while the second will offer a more spiritual reflection and deeper inner perspective.  

Part I: Summary of Latest Interesting Research

HS Parents, “for Better and for Worse”

Lionetti, F., Spinelli, M., Bosmans, G., D’Urso, G., Fasolo, M., & Pluess, M. (2025). Is environmental sensitivity relevant to understand parenting? Observational studies with mothers of young children. Journal of Family Psychology,

When studies use self-report measures of parenting, HS parents often come out looking less competent, but these researchers wondered if the deeper processing of HS parents causes them to describe their own parenting as worse than observers might. To avoid that problem, two studies in Italy observed mothers with infants rather than asking them to describe in a questionnaire how they parent.  In the first study, HS mothers were a bit more intrusive when their infants were 3 months old and less intrusive than other parents at 9 months. That was the only difference observed. In the second study, HS mothers with a history of “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACEs) were found to be less attuned to their 3-month-old infants and more stressed. But in the same study HS mothers had more adaptive parental responses than others if they had higher physiological self-regulation, something on which HSPs can vary. In this study they looked at “respiratory sinus arrhythmia,” a good thing to have, in that it is a measure of the coordination of your heart and breathing, and similar to vagal tone, measured in this study, which I have also discussed: Moscardino, U., Scrimin, S., Lionetti, F., & Pluess, M. (2021). Environmental sensitivity and cardiac vagal tone as moderators of the relationship between family support and well-being in low SES children: An exploratory study. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, [link]

That is, high sensitivity was not directly related to worse parenting, but rather it made mothers more receptive to environmental (ACEs) and inner physiological factors, for better and for worse. 

Bottom Line: Understanding HS parents is complicated because they may differ from other parents in systematic ways when they are asked to fill out a questionnaire about how they parent. Additionally, differential susceptibility enters in—with poor childhoods they may parent worse than others. But certain physiological factors looked at in this study, among many other things, may make them better than others at parenting. 

HSPs Flourish When Connected To Nature

Carroll, S., O’Brien, A., Lionetti, F., O’Reilly, A., & Setti, A. (2025). Flourishing as a highly sensitive person: a mixed method study on the role of nature connectedness and chaotic home environment.  Frontiers in Psychology ,  16 , 1480669.

Here is yet another study of how HSPs do better if connected to nature, this time with 856 participants over 40,  surveyed for their level of  SPS (high means being an HSP), “flourishing,” current chaos in the home, and nature connectedness. Flourishing was positively associated with nature connectedness and age and negatively with higher SPS. But if you were over 50, nature connectedness increased the chances of flourishing if you were an HSPs, while it did not affect how chaos affected HSPs. When 12 participants were interviewed, they reported significant benefits from nature.  The authors conclude that, “overall, the results showed that connecting with nature significantly contributes to flourishing in highly sensitive individuals, particularly in middle to older age.”

Bottom Line: Again and again we see, get out in nature if you want to flourish! The older you get, the more true it is.

Part II: Belief Versus Actual Experience:

What It Takes

In these blog posts on the transcendent, I would like to provide you with something factual and something practical. I will start with facts. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2024, 86% of adults living in the U.S. believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body, 83% believe in God or a universal spirit, and 79% believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we can’t see it.  This is all less true for atheists or agnostics, of course, but still, even many of them agree with these statements. And all of this is about the same globally. Further, I suspect HSPs are at the high end, above 86%. You do not need much from me on these topics.

Belief in the West, Actual Experience Coming from the East

Still, all of that is about belief. What about experience? Western spiritual teaching tends to be more about ideas and words in the form of sermons, books, and prayers, and then you believe in those ideas.  Eastern teachings focus much more on the experience of the transcendent—experiences of pure being, the Absolute, God (in Vedanta, not Buddhism). Their sermons, books, and prayers mostly aim to foster that experience. The experience itself is sought and repeatedly experienced until it becomes permanent, sometimes described as nirvana or liberation.

You, however, may have already had some powerful experiences. Roughly half of those polled in the U.S. say they have had a “mystical” experience, and a few have said it has transformed their lives permanently, in which case researchers called it a “spiritually transformative experience.” So it seems to be human nature. And again, these experiences may be even more common among HSPs. 

However, in the West, slipping from ordinary life into a permanently transformed state is very rare.  Eastern teachings, in contrast, emphasize that almost anyone can do it, through slow, consistent brain changes, using meditation and related practices, such as yoga.  

About 17 to 20% of people in the U.S. do yoga or meditate. I suspect that the percentage would be higher among HSPs. I certainly have encouraged HSPs to try meditation, to help them regulate their emotions, recover from or prevent overstimulation, and generally stay calm. Those who meditate and do yoga say it improves their well-being in a variety of ways, but I doubt many are thinking about its original purpose, awakening or enlightenment. (Yoga in the sense of bodily poses was meant to enhance meditation.) That may be one reason why, although I cannot find any data on how many people meditate consistently, every day, my impression is that most do not. Or they begin and then after a few months quit entirely. So perhaps this is something I can help with.  

The Reason You Need Consistent Practice

Before considering the reasons people stop, perhaps it would help to see why one might regret it later.  There is a huge body of research on the benefits of meditation, from making you more effective in your work to slowing down the aging process–but all these benefits require consistent practice, and they accumulate over years. This is due to neuroplasticity, that whatever we do consistently changes the brain in that direction. Our mind gets used to the state created by meditation and begins to learn how to stay in it when we are not meditating. It cannot learn that, however, unless we consistently go there.  As Transcendental Meditation teachers like to say, you dip the cloth in the dye (the inner experience), then fade it in the sun, until eventually it no longer fades. 

With that in mind, I think the flaws in the logic of the reasons for stopping meditation become clearer.

The Reasons People Say They Stop

First, “It took too much time.” Really, “too much”? Everything valuable takes some time. It is a question of priorities. If you have children, you make time for them. If you want a garden, you take time to tend to it. (One term Buddha used for meditation was “cultivation,” in that it takes time to cultivate a mind.) If you want major permanent improvement in your brain, you take time for it. And often one finds one’s life becomes more efficient, so that you may have less time for work, yet accomplish more when you are doing it. Less time for “fun things,” but find them more fun.

As an example of just one study of the effects of meditation on the brain, Luders, Cherbuin, and Kurth in 2015 published research in Frontiers in Psychology finding that while the human brain begins deteriorating after the first two decades of life, in their study of 100 long-term meditators (age 24-77 years), using various types of meditation, the decline (looking at grey matter in this case) was much more limited than in a matched control group. Isn’t it worth it, long-term, to have your brain intact?

Second, “I wasn’t good at it.” This response always makes me sad. Since meditation came to the West, a great deal has been learned about how to teach it. Basically, everyone can learn to meditate. It is not difficult. Indeed, it should feel effortless. But teachers do vary in how well they teach. If you do not find your meditation easy, find a new method or a new teacher.

A common problem is that being used to working hard to make progress, meditators often work at meditating well too. Often new meditators will hear about others’ experiences and start comparing themselves. Teachers sometimes encourage this, but if you know you are meditating correctly, try to avoid comparing yourself. Your brain is unique with unique needs.

Or new meditators will have a very deep, fulfilling experience and then try to make that happen again.  But every meditation is different. And when they fail to recreate that special moment, they start straining and then they have a “bad” meditation. A few of those and they feel they are not good at meditating. Certain advanced Buddhist practices do require some effort, but not strain. When you start thinking you are bad at meditating, revisit your teacher to be reminded about how to meditate and how well you are doing.

Third, “I didn’t get much from it.” Here the problem is having the wrong expectations. Again, meditation works gradually on the whole brain, and the real purpose is a total transformation, sometimes called enlightenment. Specific problems such as insomnia or anxiety may not be immediately fixed. You have to give it time, preferably at least a year. And the changes you notice may not be the ones you expected, but just as good, such as improvements in relationships because you are a kinder, calmer person after your daily meditation. 

All of this is not meant as a sermon or lecture. Please understand that. I want you to decide for yourself about meditation and everything else “spiritual.” I simply want you to be well informed when you decide. (That is the sole purpose of my book coming out in the spring, Spirituality Through a Highly Sensitive Lens.)