You Weren’t Too Much — You Were Just Misunderstood: How Unmet Needs Undermine Your Worth

“The sensitivity of the artist, the poet, the writer—this must be protected and safeguarded at all costs.” — Anaïs Nin

You’ve been called intense. Sensitive. Dramatic. You’ve been told to calm down, lighten up, stop overthinking. You’ve felt your feelings arrive too loudly. Your presence takes up too much space. Your truth asks for more than others are ready to give.

So you learned to shrink. To scan the room before speaking. To edit your tone. To preface your truth with apologies. To hold back tears, mute your joy, manage the fire within.

And you began to wonder: Is there something wrong with me? Am I too much? Am I too sensitive?

But what if the answer is no? What if you weren’t too much at all—just misunderstood with needs that went unmet?

What if your intensity was never a flaw, but a language no one around you had learned to speak? What if your sensitivity was a form of wisdom in a world that praises numbness? What if your emotional depth wasn’t excessive, but sacred?

There’s a difference between being too much and being unwitnessed. Between being difficult and being deeply attuned.

Pause for a moment and let this land…with compassion and acceptance for all of you.  

Many of us were raised in environments that couldn’t hold what was alive within us—not because we were broken, but because those around us had become disconnected from their own emotions and didn’t have space for empathy or compassion. We didn’t ask for too much—we asked for what they never learned to give.

You may have absorbed others’ discomfort as evidence that you were wrong. You may have mistaken being misunderstood for being unworthy. In the absence of affirmation, you mirrored those around you—invalidation and hiding parts of yourself became a strategy for belonging.

There is another way.

Slowly, gently, you can let that story unravel. You can name what happened. You can mourn what was missing. And you can stop apologizing for the size of your soul. You can forgive yourself for buying into the belief that you were too much.  You can shift into the freedom of being yourself fully and unapologetically. 

Healing doesn’t require shrinking your sensitivity. It asks you to honor it as strength. To expand your capacity to feel—without shame. To be seen in your joy, your grief, your longing, your voice—without tightening, minimizing, or explaining yourself away.

There’s nothing wrong with your emotions. Your intensity is not a threat. Your presence is not a burden.

You were never too much. You were simply a mirror no one was ready to look into. A song no one knew how to sing along with. 

Now, you get to be met. First, by yourself with compassion and acceptance. You get to witness your own depth without rushing past it. To hold your sensitivity without hardening it. To greet every part of yourself—the expansive, the tender, the vibrant, the feeling—with reverence.

Because the truth is: You were never too much. They just weren’t listening. But now… you are.

A Practice to Support You

If this stirred something tender within you, pause with this guided meditation:
Inner Resilience and Self-Worth
Let it be your place to land. A space where your full self is welcomed—without apology.

Want to Keep Unraveling the Shame That Silenced You?

If you’re ready to stop shrinking and start living anchored in your inherent value, I invite you to explore the course Build Unshakable Self-Worth.

It’s a somatically rooted, nervous-system-informed journey to help you stop editing yourself for love—and begin living from the truth of your worth.

You don’t need to fix your sensitivity. You just need to remember it’s a form of intelligence.