Tao's self-help book reviews and reflections

I hope it's ok to randomly start a thread reviewing self-help books I'm reading/ have read, I haven't heard many people mention a lot of them here yet, but maybe some of these books can help other people too, as I've found a lot of them helpful! I would love to hear other people's opinions, too.

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The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron

Difficulty: This book is in a language that is very conversational and easy to read.

Who should read it: I recommend this book for anyone who seems more anxious or upset than people around them, or feels like they don't fit in with the loud, cheerful society around them. 

It is aimed at adults so there are sections talking about adult life - relationships, work, parenting etc. But it also talks about childhood, which might be helpful for teens.

Trigger warnings: None really, it talks about quite normal lives, nothing too upsetting.

I avoided this book for a long time because I honestly thought it was embarrassing to be sensitive, and that I definitely wasn't sensitive. I'm a bit of a tomboy and thought of myself as very straightforward. But recently I finally got around to reading this and it is very different from what I expected!

It talks about how 1 in 5 people are more sensitive to everything - their surroundings, how people are feeling etc. and those people have a special role to play in society - they help to look after everyone else by showing warning signs of when society isn't sustainable, or how to progress successfully instead of accidentally charging into disaster. Sensitive people are like the canary in the mine, that alert less sensitive people to danger, and to how to live in a way that will benefit everyone.

With these special senses it is easy to get overwhelmed and need more quiet alone time to recover though, it's just part of being sensitive. Other people and events hurt sensitive people more easily, too.

Some people mention the writing style of the book is too simplistic, a bit like a magazine article or horoscope reading, but personally I liked its tone and a lot of what it said made a lot of sense and really rang true for me.

Overall, the book made me feel much more confident about being more sensitive than most people. There is a simple quiz at the beginning and I ticked most of the boxes. It made me think very differently about how I experience the world and helped me to stop thinking there is so much wrong with me.