Emotional Sensitivity vs Conditioning: How to Know What’s Really Yours
Many people feel deeply emotional without knowing whether they’re feeling their own emotions or someone else’s.
Human Design gives us language for emotional sensitivity, but the lived experience is far more nuanced.
Anyone who is born with a defined emotional solar plexus centre is designed to be emotional - meaning they feel emotional ups and downs and this shows them what is best for them. It's important for these people to tune into their feelings because it becomes their awareness system guiding them towards what is right for them.
This article however focuses on emotional openness which means someone has an open emotional solar plexus. We'll explore this through a gentle and compassionate lens, helping you understand:
why you feel so much
what’s yours
what isn’t
how to navigate emotional environments
how to let go of what you’ve absorbed
Let’s explore this softly.
Emotional sensitivity is not a flaw, it’s an intelligence.
Emotionally open people often feel:
waves of emotion without a clear cause
sudden shifts in mood
emotional intensity that rises and falls
overwhelm in group spaces
pressure to keep the peace
discomfort around conflict
a desire to withdraw to recalibrate
This isn’t weakness.
It’s attunement.
You feel more because you absorb more.
How conditioning makes emotional openness confusing
When you absorb emotions from others, you can:
internalise them
believe they’re yours
try to fix them
shape yourself around them
take responsibility for feelings that never originated with you
Conditioning teaches emotionally open people to:
suppress emotions
avoid emotions
absorb emotions
manage emotions for others
become the “calm one” or the “peacekeeper”
And when we cannot separate ourselves from the emotional field, we lose clarity.
How to tell whether an emotion is yours or someone else’s
Here are gentle signs:
1. The emotion arrives suddenly.
Often without context → it’s not yours.
2. The intensity feels disproportionate.
If the emotion is bigger than the situation → you’re amplifying someone else.
3. The emotion disappears when you step away.
If it dissipates quickly → it wasn’t yours to hold.
4. Your mind creates stories to justify it.
This is the body’s way of trying to make sense of someone else’s energy.
A Reflector’s experience of emotional absorption
Reflectors feel emotional landscapes intensely.
We sample moods.
We absorb tensions.
We mirror the environment.
For much of my life, I believed I was “too emotional,” when in reality:
I was carrying emotions that belonged to everyone else.
Letting go of this changed everything.
Not because I became less sensitive but because I became more discerning.
.
A compassionate reframe
Emotional openness doesn’t mean emotional fragility.
It means:
intelligence
sensitivity
awareness
depth
empathy
energetic perception
Your job is not to suppress it.
Your job is to discern it.
If emotional sensitivity is a theme for you…
You may enjoy the depth and clarity offered inside my teaching.
Explore my personal introduction to the Mastery Program here.