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Thrill: Everyday Creators
If Thrill's second edition gave you the framework, Everyday Creators gives you the real HSS/HSP stories of fear, failure, reinvention, and the creativity in between.
Everyday Creators is the applied companion to Thrill, second edition, the book that explored how creativity manifests in Sensitive Sensation Seekers. Everyday Creators shows what that tension actually looks like when it's lived out, day after day, by real people.
This is a collection of honest, unpolished stories from people navigating that same internal a publisher who built an entire company around a 4am ritual because no existing structure ever fit his wiring. A woman who has moved more than thirty times, engineering every detail of her home and schedule around a nervous system that runs on overdrive. A man who walked away from a marriage and a country to stop suppressing who he was. A former police officer rebuilding his life after C-PTSD. A corporate executive who failed twice in business before finding his real calling. A skateboarder who has spent forty years using one sport to regulate a mind that won't sit still.
None of these are polished success stories. They are real accounts of fear, perfectionism, burnout, reinvention, and the everyday, often invisible creativity it takes to build a life around being both deeply sensitive and hungry for intensity.
These stories are proof that this kind of creativity, born from traits that can feel contradictory, can be built into a life that works. Read them together, or read this one first. Either way, you'll likely recognize yourself somewhere in these pages.
Everyday Creators is the applied companion to Thrill, second edition, the book that explored how creativity manifests in Sensitive Sensation Seekers. Everyday Creators shows what that tension actually looks like when it's lived out, day after day, by real people.
This is a collection of honest, unpolished stories from people navigating that same internal a publisher who built an entire company around a 4am ritual because no existing structure ever fit his wiring. A woman who has moved more than thirty times, engineering every detail of her home and schedule around a nervous system that runs on overdrive. A man who walked away from a marriage and a country to stop suppressing who he was. A former police officer rebuilding his life after C-PTSD. A corporate executive who failed twice in business before finding his real calling. A skateboarder who has spent forty years using one sport to regulate a mind that won't sit still.
None of these are polished success stories. They are real accounts of fear, perfectionism, burnout, reinvention, and the everyday, often invisible creativity it takes to build a life around being both deeply sensitive and hungry for intensity.
These stories are proof that this kind of creativity, born from traits that can feel contradictory, can be built into a life that works. Read them together, or read this one first. Either way, you'll likely recognize yourself somewhere in these pages.
225 pages, Paperback
Published September 10, 2026
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September 21, 2026
Immersed, attuned and moved by the authentic stories within Thrill - Everyday Creators
This is a book full of engaging stories from a community of sensitive sensation seekers also known as Wild Sensitives who don't necessarily know each other but share two innate traits. And I couldn't help but keep turning the page.
While high sensitivity (HSP) has been researched and discussed for decades, the sensitive sensation seeker, a person who has the innate trait of HSP and high sensation seeking (HSS) is not quite as understood.
This is not Tracy Cooper Ph.D.'s first book on this subject as is clear in the description but what kept me turning the pages was the lived stories of the people featured here. And of course my interest is piqued because I am a Wild Sensitive intrigued by authentic voices. And there are many to keep you hooked.
There is a wonderful honesty and vulnerability that shines through in the words spread across the sheets. Vulnerability as in allowing the stories to be shared with honesty but with each story there is a wisdom as every person weaves themselves in and out of situations in the most creative ways.
We are taken on a journey with each storyteller from their present to the past when this supposed paradox of innate traits first showed up or perhaps was noticed by them and in some parts judged by others.
Wild Sensitives are known to have one foot on the brake and the other on the pedal, a phrase adopted by Dr Elaine Aron. This basically means that adventure, however that shows up, is as much a part of an individual's innate need as rest is. And even as I write this I understand this is quite a high level view of a more complex nervous system, summarised by me.
The HSS part loves novelty, for example jumping out of a plane or riding a roller coaster and writing books (adventure on the page). The HSP is finely attuned and processing deeply and constantly, picking up subtle nuances that others miss as they evaluate situations and connect with the environment. Again quite a simple analogy for an analytical mind. There is so much more to how we are wired.
Lean into the need for novelty too much the nervous system becomes overstimulated. Ignore the signs you may find yourself on the couch recouping. Honour the HSP more and boredom will inevitably set in. Is there balance to be found? One storyteller said that he feels sometimes it is 80/20 in favour of one trait or the other.
The book not only highlights how these two innate traits show up but what happens when the patterns of learned behaviours and other diagnoses, perhaps other innate traits too, join the mix?
Understanding who you are at your core is what sets you free from the boundaries of others' expectations and the boundaries you’ve set yourself. Most of the individuals featured have found their natural way of being their true human self by taking the time to tune in to, what I would argue, is an intuitive way of being if you take the time to understand your strengths. And there are many.
There may be an assumption that innate traits make everyone the same. That certainly isn’t the case as you’ll be able to deduce from the varied stories. And when we look at any being at a cellular level not a single one of us is the same.
I struggled to stay away from judgement in some instances, because of my value system.
While there are differences in each of the storytellers, what we all have in common is the capacity to solve problems through depth of processing and because of the ability to perform a risk assessment. And this is demonstrated through the creative thinking of each individual in this book whether it be simply navigating life or in the workforce.
But creativity in this context needn’t mean just the arts; writing, painting, music and more. It shows up in creative thinking; adapting to high or low risk situations or finding a solution to a problem before anyone else sees it.
We can all be affected by a toxic culture at work or in friendship circles and eventually we process our way through and out, tolerating a little less with age and internal growth.
Embracing our sensitivity for respite more whether through age or self awareness appears to be a thread running through the narrative. And the need for perfectionism and approval wanes as the individuals sit comfortably and knowingly with the traits, and as appears to be a pattern with age there is less of a desire to continue to prove worth through perfectionism or the striving of.
In this 3 part booklet each story is punctuated with an Editor's Reflections. Tracy Cooper Ph.D. summarises each experience by reflecting on how the innate traits show up for each individual creative and more besides.
I also find myself on the pages. There are multiple examples which I relate to and coping strategies I use or once adopted.
I did laugh when I read about buying self help books never to be read. And indeed I found myself making a note of a book mentioned here with the view to purchase it so that, no doubt, it too can gather dust. The absurdity of it does make me laugh. I do believe that most of us highly sensitive and sensitive sensation seekers are researchers and in pursuit of knowledge for our entire life.
I am learning from each of the stories. Some of the daily routines, the instinctive navigating of puzzles and situations, are quite simply just very clever.
I view these traits as gifts. Perhaps in the infant stage of getting to know oneself there may feel like a push pull, but the gift is not in how they are different but how they work together. So do we stop seeing them as separate? We are very much a self reflecting tribe.
Not everyone takes the time to truly get to know the very essence of themselves. But each story acknowledges that education for healing and growth is forever. How wise!
I am absorbing the narrative and vulnerability of men showing up with the courage to be transparent. I have learned through some deep discussions that men are not taught emotional resilience and sometimes emotional regulation. They are taught to get on with it. So their stories are helping me be more aware as they share difficult experiences.
Many stories have pierced my wild sensitive heart and I find myself with a lump in my throat and involuntary tears.
I definitely put my phone on Do Not Disturb, too. I can’t cope with the spontaneous interruptions. My whole body reacts to that like a panic button has been pressed sometimes. There are many moments where I find myself acknowledging a safe guard pattern.
Isn’t it awful how badly we talk to ourselves? I noticed this as a pattern in most of what I read. Always striving to be better, do better, rather than knowing you’re right where and how you are supposed to be. I find myself wondering if that is learned behaviour or part of our innate traits? It appears that as different as these stories are, the thread that stitches each story together is the desire to do better. Even though the marrying of these innate traits has provided us with the wonderful ability to apply creative and therefore critical thinking to our everyday life. Isn’t that enough? Is it?
I advocate for the artisan voice, bringing yourself to the page and your dialect and senses, describing your world through your lens so that you give the reader a true impression of who is on the page. And what has struck me, as I absorb the narrative, is that the voices seem to jump off the page in the masculine or feminine and at times I read fast because the person has given me a sense of urgency. Not because of sentence structure, but because I feel their energy.
Right now I’ve reached one that has slowed me right down. I have a real connection with this piece even though it’s not me but it’s pulling me in.
I have found myself immersed, attuned and moved. Thank you Tracy Cooper, PhD for bringing us Thrill - Everyday Creators.
This is a book full of engaging stories from a community of sensitive sensation seekers also known as Wild Sensitives who don't necessarily know each other but share two innate traits. And I couldn't help but keep turning the page.
While high sensitivity (HSP) has been researched and discussed for decades, the sensitive sensation seeker, a person who has the innate trait of HSP and high sensation seeking (HSS) is not quite as understood.
This is not Tracy Cooper Ph.D.'s first book on this subject as is clear in the description but what kept me turning the pages was the lived stories of the people featured here. And of course my interest is piqued because I am a Wild Sensitive intrigued by authentic voices. And there are many to keep you hooked.
There is a wonderful honesty and vulnerability that shines through in the words spread across the sheets. Vulnerability as in allowing the stories to be shared with honesty but with each story there is a wisdom as every person weaves themselves in and out of situations in the most creative ways.
We are taken on a journey with each storyteller from their present to the past when this supposed paradox of innate traits first showed up or perhaps was noticed by them and in some parts judged by others.
Wild Sensitives are known to have one foot on the brake and the other on the pedal, a phrase adopted by Dr Elaine Aron. This basically means that adventure, however that shows up, is as much a part of an individual's innate need as rest is. And even as I write this I understand this is quite a high level view of a more complex nervous system, summarised by me.
The HSS part loves novelty, for example jumping out of a plane or riding a roller coaster and writing books (adventure on the page). The HSP is finely attuned and processing deeply and constantly, picking up subtle nuances that others miss as they evaluate situations and connect with the environment. Again quite a simple analogy for an analytical mind. There is so much more to how we are wired.
Lean into the need for novelty too much the nervous system becomes overstimulated. Ignore the signs you may find yourself on the couch recouping. Honour the HSP more and boredom will inevitably set in. Is there balance to be found? One storyteller said that he feels sometimes it is 80/20 in favour of one trait or the other.
The book not only highlights how these two innate traits show up but what happens when the patterns of learned behaviours and other diagnoses, perhaps other innate traits too, join the mix?
Understanding who you are at your core is what sets you free from the boundaries of others' expectations and the boundaries you’ve set yourself. Most of the individuals featured have found their natural way of being their true human self by taking the time to tune in to, what I would argue, is an intuitive way of being if you take the time to understand your strengths. And there are many.
There may be an assumption that innate traits make everyone the same. That certainly isn’t the case as you’ll be able to deduce from the varied stories. And when we look at any being at a cellular level not a single one of us is the same.
I struggled to stay away from judgement in some instances, because of my value system.
While there are differences in each of the storytellers, what we all have in common is the capacity to solve problems through depth of processing and because of the ability to perform a risk assessment. And this is demonstrated through the creative thinking of each individual in this book whether it be simply navigating life or in the workforce.
But creativity in this context needn’t mean just the arts; writing, painting, music and more. It shows up in creative thinking; adapting to high or low risk situations or finding a solution to a problem before anyone else sees it.
We can all be affected by a toxic culture at work or in friendship circles and eventually we process our way through and out, tolerating a little less with age and internal growth.
Embracing our sensitivity for respite more whether through age or self awareness appears to be a thread running through the narrative. And the need for perfectionism and approval wanes as the individuals sit comfortably and knowingly with the traits, and as appears to be a pattern with age there is less of a desire to continue to prove worth through perfectionism or the striving of.
In this 3 part booklet each story is punctuated with an Editor's Reflections. Tracy Cooper Ph.D. summarises each experience by reflecting on how the innate traits show up for each individual creative and more besides.
I also find myself on the pages. There are multiple examples which I relate to and coping strategies I use or once adopted.
I did laugh when I read about buying self help books never to be read. And indeed I found myself making a note of a book mentioned here with the view to purchase it so that, no doubt, it too can gather dust. The absurdity of it does make me laugh. I do believe that most of us highly sensitive and sensitive sensation seekers are researchers and in pursuit of knowledge for our entire life.
I am learning from each of the stories. Some of the daily routines, the instinctive navigating of puzzles and situations, are quite simply just very clever.
I view these traits as gifts. Perhaps in the infant stage of getting to know oneself there may feel like a push pull, but the gift is not in how they are different but how they work together. So do we stop seeing them as separate? We are very much a self reflecting tribe.
Not everyone takes the time to truly get to know the very essence of themselves. But each story acknowledges that education for healing and growth is forever. How wise!
I am absorbing the narrative and vulnerability of men showing up with the courage to be transparent. I have learned through some deep discussions that men are not taught emotional resilience and sometimes emotional regulation. They are taught to get on with it. So their stories are helping me be more aware as they share difficult experiences.
Many stories have pierced my wild sensitive heart and I find myself with a lump in my throat and involuntary tears.
I definitely put my phone on Do Not Disturb, too. I can’t cope with the spontaneous interruptions. My whole body reacts to that like a panic button has been pressed sometimes. There are many moments where I find myself acknowledging a safe guard pattern.
Isn’t it awful how badly we talk to ourselves? I noticed this as a pattern in most of what I read. Always striving to be better, do better, rather than knowing you’re right where and how you are supposed to be. I find myself wondering if that is learned behaviour or part of our innate traits? It appears that as different as these stories are, the thread that stitches each story together is the desire to do better. Even though the marrying of these innate traits has provided us with the wonderful ability to apply creative and therefore critical thinking to our everyday life. Isn’t that enough? Is it?
I advocate for the artisan voice, bringing yourself to the page and your dialect and senses, describing your world through your lens so that you give the reader a true impression of who is on the page. And what has struck me, as I absorb the narrative, is that the voices seem to jump off the page in the masculine or feminine and at times I read fast because the person has given me a sense of urgency. Not because of sentence structure, but because I feel their energy.
Right now I’ve reached one that has slowed me right down. I have a real connection with this piece even though it’s not me but it’s pulling me in.
I have found myself immersed, attuned and moved. Thank you Tracy Cooper, PhD for bringing us Thrill - Everyday Creators.
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