myself. I bought a Lonely Planet book. I’m buying a new camera.
I leave tomorrow for Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It’s like, getting
lost might not be a bad thing.”
These are all extreme examples of another thread of this
story we have now seen over and over: Extreme activities bring high
sensation-seekers peace, confidence, and happiness. They might
even have a positive impact on their physical biology.How to Stay in the Light
We’ve examined some of the potential woes and wonders of high
sensation-seeking. You might wonder how to tip the scales and get
more good than bad from this personality trait. Here are a few
recommendations for doing just that.
First...stop and think. High sensation-seekers are known
for their ability to act and have their body figure out what to do. It’s
often one of the things they are most proud of doing. However,
every now and then it’s good to stop and think to decide if the
activity or action being considered is really worth the risk.
Next, separate sensation-seeking from novelty seeking.
Occasionally, when people feel bored, what they’re looking for is
something new. The newness doesn’t HAVE to come from thrill-
and adventure-seeking. Novelty can come without the risk. The
newness, for example, could come from doing something routine
in a very different way.
Also, increase empathy. Earlier, we learned that sometimes
high sensation-seekers may have trouble seeing things from
another point of view. The more that a high sensation-seeker can
increase their empathy for others, the more it might help these
relationships. In fact, I think increasing empathy can be helpful for
everyone.
So, how can you increase empathy? In his article, “The Six
Habits of Highly Empathic People”, Roman Krznaric (pronounced
kriz-NAR-ik) gives a few tips to increase empathy.^22 For instance,
cultivate your curiosity about strangers, challenge your prejudices,
discover commonalities between yourself and others, or even try
another person’s life in your imagination.
Next, try reducing disinhibition and boredom susceptibil-
ity. The two parts of the sensation-seeking personality that are
likely to get a high sensation-seeker in trouble are disinhibition
and boredom susceptibility. How can you reduce these? There is174 / Buzz!Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:18:43, subject to the Cambridge