Thrill: Sensitive Sensation Seekers & Everyday Creativity
September 10, 2026 | Posted in Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Dr. Tracy Cooper, Ph.D. one of the leading authorities and researchers on Highly Sensitive People and High Sensation Seekers known as Sensitive Sensation Seekers, https://drtracycooper.org/ has brought us more gems of ground-breaking research in his second edition of Thrill as an addition to his first edition of Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person. The 2nd edition is filled with even more recent intelligence on Sensitive Sensation Seekers. His latest books Thrill (2nd Edition): Embracing the Paradox of Sensitivity and Sensation Seeking is a completely different book than the first edition – not just a rewrite. This 2nd edition takes the reader to new levels of understanding based on his and other recent research into the paradox of living with both traits of being a Highly Sensitive Person and a High Sensation Seeker.
He simultaneously wrote a companion book to the 2nd edition covering 25 Sensitive Sensation Seekers from around the world at all life stages and ages with in-depth interviews of how these Sensitive Sensation Seekers have created their lives to embrace their paradoxical traits, even if they didn’t know they had them or even know what it meant to be a Highly Sensitive Person or a High Sensation Seeker. The companion book is called Thrill: Everyday Creators.
If you want to take a deeper dive into the why, what, and how others have embraced their perplexing complexity of traits to strategically manage their lives and create a life of design and not default, then you need both of these books. The 2nd Edition of Thrill gives you the research, the WHAT and the WHY. The companion book on Everyday Creators lets you take a peek behind the curtain of HOW others with these traits have survived, fallen, thrived, flailed, and succeeded by trial and error in their iterative process to learn how to live with the duality of depth and daring, security and seeking, with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake.
These are not How-To books, because the how is very personalized depending upon the individual, their specific trait properties, context, interests, lifestyles and choices. Each individual must forge their own way forward, testing the waters of overstimulation and under-stimulation/boredom to test their own personal tolerances for keeping themselves in balance and in the flow state unique to them. These books are imperative reading for those who think or know they have the paradoxical traits of being a Highly Sensitive Person and a High Sensation Seeker in order to better understand yourself and how you move through the world and how to adapt everything in your life at every level so you can maintain your equilibrium and avoid overwhelm as well as boredom.
I am humbled and honored to be one of those 25 people interviewed for the companion book on how I managed to creatively design my life around traits I didn’t know existed until I was 60 – totally living by intuition and trusting what my body told me for many decades. My hope is that you find these books and Dr. Cooper’s research in your younger years so you can understand yourself and your needs and how to create a life that will support your special traits where you need both meaningful stimulation and time to recover. These traits are your super power. The very act of designing a life and a career in an artful way to best support your gifts/talents/skills is the very act of being a creative.
Review of the 2nd edition of Thrill: Embracing the Paradox of Sensitivity and Sensation Seeking. Thanks to Dr. Cooper’s research, insight, and guidance, the act of designing your life can be distilled to the art and science of creating your individual flow between overstimulation and boredom based on your personal tolerances. His book gives you a structure on which to overlay your personal traits to create optimal life experiences. It’s your secret decoder ring for any Sensitive Sensation Seeker who wants to solve your individual puzzle to create a supportive structure as the architect of your life. This book gives you the sides and corner pieces of the puzzle and it’s up to you to fill in your own picture of how you want your life to look.
In this new edition of Thrill, Dr. Cooper’s brilliant, ground-breaking research breaks down how Highly Sensitive People and High Sensation Seekers use the tension between the paradox of living in the flow between over-stimulation and overwhelm on one side and boredom/under-stimulation on the other side. They often cross over the line into overwhelm or boredom for that is the nature of the beast – trying to learn where your personal boundaries are for each of the states. For some Sensitive Sensation Seekers with a lower volume of intensity or perhaps only one or two of the four characteristics of a High Sensation Seeker and a low volume of High Sensitivity or Sensory Processing Sensitivity, their path between overwhelm and boredom may be a wide walking path.
For Sensitive Sensation Seekers with a high volume in all four categories of the Sensation Seeking trait, there is a thin tightrope of flow between the states of overwhelm and underwhelm. Those with high scores in both the Highly Sensitive inventory and the High Sensation Seeking inventory often bump up against and cross over into these other states, as their tolerance is much more narrow in order to remain balanced in the flow state.
Sensitive Sensation Seekers are driven to feel that inner aliveness and creative processing tension between how we take in the world through our sensitivities and how we express to the world through our sensation seeking. The need for novelty, challenge, experimentation, surprise and excitement needs to be balanced with regrouping, rest, processing time, and recovery time to protect the sensitivities. It is through this balancing act we find the tension that enables creativity. It’s the dissonance that creates energy and emotional energy that can get stuck in the body without proper expression.
It’s a constant iterative recalibration to test tolerances and what works to both protect and project your energy in nearly all circumstances. We need to discharge those emotions and feelings and transfer them outside of our body to avoid the stuck energy, which can lead to more stress, strokes, depression, heart attacks, disease (dis-ease), agitation, irritability, etc. The higher the emotion and intensity of the tension between your paradox of sensitivities and sensation seeking tendencies, the more cognitive load you have to discharge to dissipate the overload/over-stimulation and regulate back to your equilibrium.
If there is more tension, (from far too much stimulation or if you have a high volume of Sensation Seeker and Sensitivity traits) you may first need bigger energy releases and exertion such as heavy weightlifting, running, biking, soccer, dancing or other types of movement to lower the tension and intensity of dissonance. If there is less dissonance and less intense tension between your paradoxes, then you may need calmer methods of discharging the creative energy that has built up by doing art projects, napping, reading, cooking, creative writing, petting an animal, playing with your pet or organizing your closet as a way to dissipate the tension and get back in balance and into the flow state.
What can be good for you can also be bad for you if you overdue it. You may find weightlifting is your go-to move, but too much of it can lead to injury or you may find yourself bored with the same routine. The methods of movement you choose to bring yourself out of boredom or out of overwhelm is highly individualized and highly contextual for the same person. It’s something that has to be felt and experienced by each person and in each circumstance and you learn more as you go through life and learn what works best for you to keep you in the flow state of equilibrium and balance.
To maintain creative capacity, Sensitive Sensation Seekers need to offload the cognitive load and discharge the intensity of the excess energy and restlessness of overwhelm, which can be done through various creative processes, rhythm and movement to move from restlessness to calm, from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex for executive functioning. Knowing that what feeds you can also wear you out is a game changer for keeping you in the flow state of emotional regulation through creative expression to bring your system back into balance and back into flow, particularly for those with the highest paradox intensity, it is essential. Read this book and your Sensitive Sensation Seeking life will never be the same.
Review of Thrill: Everyday Creators. This companion book to the 2nd edition of Thrill: Embracing the Paradox of Sensitivity and Sensation Seeking offers real-life situations from in-depth interviews with 25 Highly Sensitive, High Sensation Seekers from around the world in various life stages and ages to present the reader with real-life examples and experiences of those who are living with the complex and perplexing paradox of being both Highly Sensitive and High Sensation Seeking. This companion book gives you examples of the HOW of living with both of these traits affects all aspects of your life and shows how others are living with discernment about knowing what excites them and what it costs afterwards and there is always a cost. It shows how others live in the stretch zone and what it looks like to visit the panic zone and how they recovered from it.
It’s a delicate balance between immersion in the excitement/challenge/novelty/intensity and the type and amount of recovery that is needed afterwards to keep Sensitive Sensation Seekers in the flow and learning what has to be included to attune to each person’s specific frequency of paradox intensity to avoid overstimulation or boredom. This book shows you how others have done it, have done it wrong, are doing it right and share their stumbling blocks so you can use them as your stepping stones to remain in the creative flow of all areas of life. I highly recommend reading the research-based book first, then the companion book for examples of how others have lived their experiences often without having any knowledge of sensitivities. Use their experience as your guard rails and use Dr. Cooper’s ground-breaking research as your guide. Your life will not be the same after gaining insights from his two latest books.
Books by Dr. Tracy M. Cooper, Ph.D. – one of the leading authorities and researchers on Highly Sensitive People and High Sensation Seekers. https://drtracycooper.org/
Thrill – Everyday Creators companion book
Thrill (2nd Edition): Embracing the Paradox of Sensitivity and Sensation Seeking
Try a Little White Space for Wiggle Room – Make Room for Something New with Radical Release
October 14, 2013 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
It never ceases to amazing me, the rushing about, the velocity of people and the ramping up of activity as we roll into the holiday season. As if many of our lives aren’t hectic enough jammed packed with busy-ness; we amp up and cram in more activities. I dare you to put a little more white space into your life. Make space for serendipity and make room for new things to flow into your path. If our lives and our homes and offices, and cars and garages and closets and calendars are filled to maximum capacity; how is the Universe going to send something to an already-full space? Clear out some stuff to make room for what matters more.
When I was in full-tilt keynote speaker mode for many years; I would always schedule some play time in the city where I was speaking to spend time with friends who lived nearby or to explore a new area. I would also “try” to schedule a down day after a trip to regroup and recharge before going out again for another program. Of course I was also guilting of booking back-to-back programs, in different parts of the world or the country in the same week or sometimes in the, gasp, same day. That would stress me out to no end if I did book something in two different states on the same day – hoping no weather-related or flight-related incidents cropped up. I paid the price for it with stress and exhaustion. I would run into other speakers at conventions who would tell me that they were doing 150 programs that year. My response was “are you bragging or complaining”…. followed by “I’m sorry to hear that.” Which usually got a wierd look in response.
Boundaries. We need to set boundaries and create white space in our lives to allow space for ourselves and our thoughts and day dreaming and planning. My hunch is the over-stuffed schedules come from a fear-based approach to not wanting to lose out on an income-producing opportunity, or to lose out to a competitor or to have to sit with ourselves and our thoughts for just a moment. A fear that we will somehow miss whatever it is may be happening whereever we may not be. Wealth and income cannot and will not flow into a space that is not accepting of it. If you have no room for more to flow in, it won’t. Period. Are you ready for more flow in your life and to release the old stuff and old ways to have more white space?
Most people spend more time writing out their holiday gift list than writing out their life plan and their dream list or their self-improvement list and goals. Why not take a breather this coming holiday season and spend time at home, away from the malls, off the freeways, out of your in-laws or relatives homes and create some more white space within yourself and within your life. I guarantee it will allow you space to Refresh, Refocus and Reconnect with you.
If you’re feeling crazed or off track or stuck or whipped up into a frenzy with all the stuff you usually do rolling into this time of year; I offer you permission to Refresh your frazzled nerves any way that feels organice and natural to who you are. It could be feeding the ducks, going to an art museum, getting a massage, facial or mani/pedi, sipping coffee on the porch, bubble baths or naps. Whatever it is that recharges your batteries, create white space for it.
Refocus and reframe your situation and your choices and your usual to-do lists during the upcoming time of year. Refocus on what you want to do for you so you can better serve others in the future. You can’t give what you don’t have, so regaining your energy and your focus makes you better at what you do. Leaders can’t lead well if their nerves are shot and their attention is scattered. Refocus on what matters most and drop the rest.
Reconnect with your Source, Yourself and Others. Make room for Spirit to work magic in your life and invite positive energy into your intentions. Reconnect with yourself through radical release. Release the old ways of running ragged. Dump the notion that the holidays mean stress. For the past few decades I’ve made a promise to myself to stay out of the malls and shopping centers between Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King Day to avoid the craziness. That is my release from all things un-spirited about the spirit of the season. No more lines, no more figting for parking, no more crowds…it’s quite a good feeling to be released from all of that negativity. I’ve come to love home delivery of my groceries and drug store purchases. Releasing myself from those time-zapping errands gives me a few hours of more white space per month and reduces my stress levels. What can you release from your life to give you more energy for other things that matter more?
Reconnecting with friends – making room for more time to really connect, not just on Facebook. Reconnecting through phone calls, sending a heart-felt card or meeting face to face the olf-fashioined way lifts our spirits. My gift to you is to send a free card to somebody and reconnect with them. Let them know you’re thinking about them – a real card with a stamp and envelope that will land in their mailbox, anywhere in the world. There’s a video that will walk you through how to send it – my treat – http://www.BizBuilderCards.com.
How can you practice radical release and create more white space in your life over the holidays and every day? What new habits can you form that will give you more wiggle room? What things and activities can you delete from your life and your space to make room for the Universe to bring you something that matters more? I double dog dare you to start creating more white space in the margins of your life and allow the flow to come to you. If there is no space for it to flow to you, it will flow to somebody else and you stay stuck in your ways. Let me know what things you’ve released from your life to make more white space to BE.
Mind Your Mindset in the Moment & Enjoy the Flow
May 5, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
As a former Recreation Professional (yes we got paid to play); we knew that it wasn’t just about the leisure activity we provided that provided the benefits to our participants, it was their mindset when they were participating.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure ‘former’ is appropriate, maybe ‘recovering’ would be a better term. I will always have a recreation and leisure outlook on life and will always embrace the importance of play, fun, re-creating, re-charging and renewing my mind, body and spirit.
I digress…. You see, we can be gardening, playing in the garden or working in the garden. It can be the same activity, but our mindset while we are doing it can be very different and thus create very different outcomes. Is cooking a joy and a creative experience to show love or is it a chore you must do to get fed? What is your mindset towards your activities?
What once was a joy can become a burden simply because of your mindset. Sort of like what attracted you to a person, may become annoying? Sound familiar? Minding our mindset when we are involved in the moment, in an activity can influence our material outcomes and our emotional/stress management outcomes as well.
Are you in the flow and in the moment? Are you fully aware and experiencing what you’re doing in that moment, or are you distracted, pre-occupied, thinking in the future or worrying about the past, or just not into it? Being in the flow, where the challenge meets our skills and time disappears is renewing, refreshing and fun.
If you’re doing an activity and finding yourself in a negative mindset, then you’re likely not reaping the benefits of your actions. If you’re just going through the motions, you may need to find another motion that’s more fulfilling or building more resilience to stress, rather than producing stress.
Minding our mindsets can help us fully engage in our lives, fully express and experience our activities and fully be in the moment without regard to the outside influences. Being conscious of our mindset throughout our day, whether work or play (or is it all play?) can help us reap greater rewards for a richer life.
