When the World Gets Loud: How Sensitive People Can Find Quiet in Summer Chaos

Listen to Episode 42: When the World Gets Loud: How Sensitive People Can Find Quiet in Summer Chaos

The summer season is often painted as a time of joy and expansion, but for highly sensitive people, it can feel like a relentless barrage of sensory input. The heat, the crowds, the fireworks, the smells, and the constant emotional tracking can leave you feeling clogged, irritable, and exhausted. In this episode, Blaze dives deep into the reality of "sensory clogging" and why the typical advice to "just relax" often falls short.

She explores the difference between pushing through and reducing input, offering compassionate strategies for managing the accumulation of stimuli that builds up over the summer. Blaze shares how to create "mini-pauses" to reset your nervous system, the art of shortening social exposures without canceling them, and the profound relief of admitting, "I'm tired." If you feel like you're drowning in the noise of the season, this conversation is your permission to step back, find your quiet, and trust that your sensitivity is a strength, not a flaw.

🌿 In this episode we explore:

• Why summer is uniquely overwhelming for sensitive people (heat, noise, crowds, emotional tracking).
• The concept of "sensory clogging" and why you feel tired even when you haven't "done" much.
• Why "just saying no" or "putting in earplugs" isn't always the solution to overstimulation.
• How to distinguish between overstimulation and burnout and why the response differs.
• Practical strategies for creating "mini-pauses" (even 2 minutes) to reset your nervous system.
• The power of shortening exposures (leaving early, stepping outside) instead of canceling plans entirely.
• Why pushing through irritation only builds a backlog and leads to an explosion later.
• How to create your own "quiet oasis" and invite others to join you in a low-input space.
• The relief of admitting you are tired and giving yourself permission to be "put out."
• How to reduce decision fatigue and simplify your life when your stimulation level is high.

Hello, my friends. This week we're going to talk about how when the world gets loud, sensitive people get tired. And I think that's just the truth of all of the sensory overload that we get in the summer.

So last week we were talking about ripening and what it means to just find this rhythm and space where you feel like you actually belong.

But this week, I want to kind of talk about the counterbalance to that, which is that in the summer, even when you're belonging really well and you've got your routines and you're full and you're enjoying it,

Sometimes there's just so much going on, so much people and invitations and stimulus and fireworks. There's still fireworks going off. I don't know why, but it's just what happens in the summer. So it's loud and people are blaring their music and the windows are down. Like there's just so much sensory input happening constantly.

There's so many smells, people are barbecuing all the time, the flowers are putting off scents. There's just stuff all the time. And as someone who's pretty attuned to just every sensory input possible,

It becomes overwhelming at a certain point and it results in fatigue and irritation and tiredness.

So if you're in that boat with me this week, I'm sending out all the love and all the feels like I...

I so relate to that, but I want to talk about what's going on and some ways that are practical that help bring that more into balance because I think the typical wisdom that's shared is you know, just stop doing as much, say no, reduce whatever, or just like put in ear plugs and pretend it's not happening.

And as someone who, like I have the earplugs - I don't want to be told just put in earplugs and just deal with it.

And yet I can't escape from life and how loud and busy and crazy and hectic it is.

So the experience of being a sensitive human being is that there's just constant physical activity around. And when you're highly attuned, it's not just that you take in, "Oh, there's a lot going on."

And I'm so jealous sometimes of people who that is just their actual lived experiences. They go, "Oh yeah, there's a lot of people," and it doesn't really phase them.

Because for me, I'm noticing there's a lot of people, and I'm noticing the emotional content and flavor of all their interactions and their body postures and how bright it is and what's going on with the wind blowing through the crowd and what's going on with the table over there and the food and there's just so many inputs.

I'm trying to map out what's going on with conversations and what are people expecting and who's interacting with who and how am I interacting with them.

And then I'm kind of absorbing the emotional noise that's around. So it's kind of like... going out into the ocean and instead of just floating around and seeing the water, it's like you're absorbing everybody else's energy.

And you're tracking, like, where's that seagull? Right?

So, tracking the dynamics between people and carrying all of the subtle tensions about, well, you know, this person seems overwhelmed and doesn't seem to want to interact with that one, so I'm going to kind of go in between them and subtly interface between this.

It does slip back into management in part because we're so attuned to when there actually is a conflict that we try to preempt it or avoid it.

There's also, at this stage, so much mental noise. And it's about the planning of what's going on and maybe you're kind of done with that like I am where I just don't have a lot of plans anymore like they're already planned. I already know what's gonna happen.

But now my brain is full of remembering. It's remembering what the plans are and remembering in what order would be best and who's coming with who, and coordinating all of the actual lived logistics of what's happening. So even though things are actually pretty excellent,

I can honestly stay, it's still a lot. And I'm sure that I'm not the only person feeling like, "Oh my gosh, it's great, but oh my God, it's so much."

And I wish that there was space to come down off of that without feeling like I'm rejecting the fullness of the season or feeling like I'm wrong for needing to retreat.

So I think that what happens for us is that with all of this deeper processing, like I don't want to say other people aren't processing deeply, but it does seem that way. It seems like they're somewhat aware of what's going on, but not to the level of nuance as people that would consider themselves more highly sensitive are feeling.

With this level of higher attunement, like there's just naturally less filtering of the input that's coming in. So I guess maybe that's a nice way to describe it is that we're lacking a filter system that other people have. And because of that, we get clogged easier.

That actually makes a lot of sense. So I think of it like a pool filter where the mesh that's like really fine. So it just gets like.

So much stuff is in there and other people are like, "Whatever, I only notice the big stuff." And I'm like, "For me, I notice every tiny particulate of pollen that came through this filter and I'm thinking about where did it come from? How does it belong? What do I need to do with it?" And yeah, so that makes a lot of sense.

So what I want to say to you is if you're feeling stressed and like there's so much, you're not overreacting. I think you're just taking in more than other people. And I want to talk about why this seems to be like the peak experience that we have in August.

It's because it's not about one event. You might feel like it's about the one event that's happening because when you're in it, it is happening in that moment.

But it's actually about the accumulation of how many interactions and how many things have been going on basically since the beginning of the summer and even the beginning of the year.

So our nervous systems at this point have been outward facing, whether we're introverts or not, like there's just a lot going on. So it's been more outward facing and dealing with life for several months now and there's been very little honestly true quiet.

There's not a ton of time where there's not some kind of ping or demand in the background saying, "Hey, show up here, do this."

"Be a part of this event, people are in your space!" Maybe even if you're home and you're in the quiet, like you're hearing either the drone of the air conditioner or you have your windows open and you're hearing everything that's going on outside. So there's just so little quiet.

And I even think when I'm driving in my car, even if I go to turn off the music.

If I have my windows down, it's actually really loud. Like having wind blow by you that much, it's just a lot of sensory input.

So this isn't about today, it's about everything that your system has accumulated that just keeps happening, without much time in between to process or just offload it in the meantime.

So what it feels like in our real life is us kind of snapping at people a little bit more than we thought that we should or want to.

And it's being overwhelmed by little things where you're just like, oh, my God, I can't believe that I'm running two minutes late, or something is missing from the fridge, or what I wanted to pick up at the grocery store in here.

It can express us wanting more alone time and kind of feeling a little guilty about it.

It can also be about dreading things that you usually enjoy. So when I find that I start dreading going for a walk because I think I might accidentally run into a neighbor and have to talk to them,

That's about when I realize I'm like, "Oh, okay, I'm overstimulated." This isn't about me hating people or suddenly not enjoying my nature walks or being outside. It's actually about how much stimulus is happening and what I'm currently capable of processing or dealing with in the moment.

I think that when I feel done with everything and I don't know why,

I come back to just some compassion for myself and going, "Oh, okay. This probably isn't any one thing."

I don't need to spend a ton of energy and effort trying to figure it out or figure out what's wrong with me or figure out why everything is bad or if it was just one incident because the mind always wants to find the thing that it can fix and go, "Oh, if you're upset, something's broken, so let's fix it, and then it won't be broken anymore."

When I think what we actually need and are craving right now is permission to just be tired, be exhausted, and be a little bit put out.

Giving yourself permission to just feel how you feel and be how you be is so relieving. Just that permission alone might free up enough energy that you find miraculously you can cope with a little bit more than you could mere moments ago.

And that's usually how it feels for me is if I just decide like, oh yeah, I'm just kind of tired and I'm pissed off. If I just admit that and say that to my daughter and be like, "You know what? I have very little capacity right now. I'm overstimulated and I can't cope with how excited you are about your cereal dance this morning. I'm really happy for you, but please take your breakfast to the end (over there.)"

She now, it's become so commonplace for us to have these conversations that she'll have it with me sometimes and be like, "Mom, I love you, but I just need to be alone right now to eat my yogurt."

I'm like, "Oh, great." It becomes matter of fact, it's not judgmental. Neither of us is saying like, "Oh, it's wrong for you to be...overstimulated."

It's not wrong for us to be tired or put out. We can just state like right now what's happening. So I'm taking care of it. And when I take care of it, then I can come back and we can interact and it'll be better.

Which is so nice. So here's what I think we need to move away from is pushing through things just because we think we have to.

Telling myself that I should just enjoy it, because I tense up and want to reject that so hard if I'm tired or I don't want to do anything anymore.

That's not an effective response to myself. And I don't think minimizing the need itself is effective, or adding more to try to feel better. I guess that's the other one too. Like, telling myself maybe I'll just go out and get some ice cream or do something nice and that'll make it feel better when the real need was just to have some quiet time and be left alone,

Adding something extra to do isn't correct in that moment for me. And I know that we do that.

Misguidedly thinking that, you know, we can mask it up or plow over it or make it feel better in that way.

So I think trying to override what's naturally happening tends to just make it louder. And I don't know if you've noticed that as well as like if you try to just power through your irritation at everything. It just builds more irritation. It doesn't reduce that in any way. And then you kind of have a backlog the next day and it builds until something breaks.

I want to break that pattern with myself anyway or give myself permission to offload it much sooner so that it doesn't get as explosive as it potentially can.

So things that really do help isn't in fixing you. It's about supporting you.

And I think the very first thing that helps the most is to start reducing some input where you can.

So if you're able to somehow manage a quieter environment or a few... less-overlapping plans. It starts giving you breathing room and space.

And here's what I want to say about that is as you start creating that space, you're going to end up feeling the underlying feeling more and it'll be uncomfortable. So if you're irritated and you give yourself more space so that you can deal with it.

That irritation will rise to the surface, and that's okay and it's normal and it's good. I just want to put that out there. So don't think that you're wrong or you're doing it wrong if you create space and you find out that you're actually really angry. Some of that is just what we've kind of stuffed down so that we could get through all of the stuff.

I think that things that help is to build just even small pockets, even if it's just a minute or two in between things, even if it's like, I'm gonna sit in the parking lot for an extra two minutes before I go in to get my daughter at her event because I just want those two minutes. And I'm going to just breathe and drink my nice ice drink and be in the sunbeam, and then go do it.

Stuff like that, even if it's not perfect, is communicating to my body in a way that it understands that I did get the message.

That I'm not pretending I didn't get the message and just running around still.

It's just that mini-pause that lets my body go, "Oh, she heard me, yay!"

So you'll still get the message. It's important that you get the message and the more that you honor it and give yourself the breaks, I think the better that we end up feeling.

I think that we also can at this point in the season, more than we could earlier, be okay with shortening exposures instead of maximizing them.

And it also means that we don't need to eliminate. I think, okay, if you have gatherings and things that you know are overstimulating to you, it can be tempting to just be like, you know what, I'm just never, I don't want to go anymore and I'm done.

Something that can be effective is to just reduce how long you're there or how deep you're going with the gathering. So it's like letting yourself be a little bit less available socially, maybe leaving earlier or giving yourself opportunities to step outside or take a break.

Or interact with fewer amounts of people at once rather than everyone. But it doesn't mean that you have to just cut everyone off and stop going to anything fun in order to protect your energy. It just means, you know, step back a little, relax a little bit.

You will know in your heart what your correct action is. And if you find that you're doing something only out of anger. So for me, like if I just canceled an entire gathering, usually it's because I'm so angry, that to me, it might not be getting at the root feeling.

I'm angry because I'm tired. I'm not angry because they wanted me to hang out. Maybe like my response isn't at the right thing.

So I guess I would offer, take a look at what's actually going on and what your, your fly off the handle response might be and go, okay, is this out of proportion for what's actually being asked?

And if so, what is it telling me about my stimulation level? And do I need to bring it down?

And how could I do it in a way that honors where I'm at, but still allows me to feel that connection and belonging because obviously, like if you made an appointment to hang out with people and you have plans, it's because you care about them and you do want to be there. So it's about honoring both halves of that.

And it becomes easier the more we dance with it through our lifetimes and the better we get at knowing how to communicate these situations to the people in our lives that we care about.

I think that at this stage in my summer, I'm simplifying everything. Like, I don't want difficult meals and difficult decisions and difficult expectations.

I'm taking things off my plate left right and sideways, where I'm like, you know, I just don't want to have to think about making decisions all week long. So I'm just going to have one day where I make decisions about food.

And I'll pre-plan a little bit, but then if it gets hard, I'm just gonna have a salad or I'm gonna eat leftover, whatever, and not even heat it up.

That's where I'm at. And part of it again is remember that your stimulation level is so high.

It is hot. There are people. It is loud. It's smelly. Like there's just stuff going on and the demand hasn't dropped off yet.

We are now standing like on the threshold of moving into the autumn where we know it's about to get quieter or it should be. And I think we get anxious and we just want it to happen right away. But it kind of is a gradual thing.

So recognize that yes, the energy is starting to slow down and we want it to slow down. I guess maybe that's what I'm feeling anyway is this internal pull of everything still really busy and rushing.

And I know it's going to slow down, and I sure wish it would slow down a little bit faster. But I'm not necessarily in control of that. So I'm really rather choosing to go along with the ride.

I'm like, how can I ride this momentum without efforting so much, without trying so hard, so that my experience of it all can be pleasant and I can feel like it's great rather than overwhelming? Yes.

So rest isn't always just about stopping. It's about kind of reducing what's coming in.

When you're tired all the time and you think you need more sleep, it might actually just be that you need less input coming at you. And I want you to realize that you have permission to pull back.

Like, you don't need to feel guilty about saying I need a little less interaction or a little like maybe an hour of socializing but not five.

You're not missing out if you do that and you're not being anti-social, you're just being honest.

And you may find that by sharing where you're at with the people in your life, you're giving them permission to be like, "Oh, thank goodness."

I only wanted to get together a little bit too, but not for so long, because we're just tired. And that's okay, we can all be tired together. I actually really enjoy gatherings where we all admit we're tired and don't do a lot.

It's fabulous. So remember that you don't have to keep matching the volume of the world around you and that you're allowed to kind of soften up around it even while everything else is still kind of loud outside.

I like to think of it like being one of those bugs, what are they, Katydids or something that do the big like, like they get really, really loud, but then like they get quiet.

And it almost is like you hear the silence because the absence of all that noise is profound.

I love existing in that nice quiet patch and I like creating it around me and creating that for other people around me as well.

So I'm like, well, when I go to you, I'm in your loud space. But when you come to me, it's this quiet oasis with less input, and it's wonderful and let's just exist here. Yes. I hope that you have an absolutely fabulous week.

Next week, let's talk about emotions some more and what's going on and how we're feeling so that we can really get ready for this transition that's before us as we move into September.

Have a lovely night.

Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next time.

Related Episodes

Series: Managing Sensory Overload and Finding Quiet For sensitive people, the world can feel like a constant barrage of input. These episodes explore how to protect your nervous system, create boundaries that reduce noise, and find the restorative power of quiet without isolating yourself from the world.

• Ep 35: How to Protect Your Time & Energy During Socially Busy Seasons – Practical strategies for saying "no" and protecting your capacity when the calendar is full.
• Ep 24: Why Setting Boundaries Feels So Uncomfortable at First – How to navigate the awkwardness of setting limits and why discomfort is a sign of growth.
• Ep 10: Wintering — The Power of Rest and Retreat – Why retreating and slowing down is essential before you can sustainably move forward.
• Ep 16: The Exhaustion No One Talks About — How Modern Life Is Quietly Burning Us Out – Understanding the hidden cognitive load of modern life and how to recover from it.
  

🌿 Want help building rhythms that work with your energy instead of fighting it?

The Living in Rhythm Starter Kit offers grounded tools for nervous system support, emotional regulation, burnout recovery, and understanding seasonal energy shifts more sustainably. It includes specific strategies for managing sensory overload and finding your "quiet oasis" when the world gets too loud.

Download it here.

🌿 Looking for a deeper, live experience this season?

I'll be hosting an Autumn Equinox gathering on September 23rd — a space to slow down, reflect, and work with the energy of harvest and release in real time. We'll be exploring how to let go of what no longer serves us and prepare for the quiet wisdom of winter.

You can learn more and save your spot here.