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See the new site location : Highly Sensitive

Sensitive to others but staying safe

Elaine Aron, PhD notes high sensitivity means "you are aware of subtleties in your surroundings" and also that you are "more easily overwhelmed when you have been out in a highly stimulating environment for too long."

In addition to other sources of sensations and input, a "highly stimulating environment" may be other people, who can impact us on multiple emotional and energetic levels, both positive and not so positive.

For anyone with the trait of high sensitivity, that impact may be especially strong.

Continued on main site: Talent Development Resources

Jenna Forrest on having a sensitive childhood

A number of people claim to have had an idyllic or happy early life, the sort evoked by this photo: The Walk to Paradise Garden [1946] by W. Eugene Smith [from the page The child self / playing.]

But for many of who have been highly sensitive all our lives, and had challenging experiences as children, that image does not fit.

Woody Allen, for example, has said that for as long as he can remember, he was a loner, hiding out in his room from the arguments of his parents, and the readiness of his mother in particular to respond to any provocation with a slap." [From page: Early life 2.]

Author Jenna Forrest writes in a blog post: "At the age of seven, I was dramatically sensitive, ultra-shy, pretty picky and painstakingly conscientious.

"My pastime of choice was studying the mysterious intricacies of the world from the safety of the shrub outside my front door.

"Being most anywhere else put me in a panic. I tried hard to disguise my most blatant shortcoming — eruptive emotion — but failed time and time again.

"My sentiment just didn’t want to be buried. It always would find the fissure in my willful mental dam..."

She adds, "As an adult I came to realize how little is truly known about the day-to-day thoughts and feelings of sensitive kids. So, I began to write Help Is On Its Way from my personal experience.

"As I wrote however, I realized that the story was developing a voice of its own. It reminded me that this wasn’t just about my life. We’re all in this together, connected, living lives full of comedy and tragedy, failure and success, loss and hope.

"If we’re lucky along the way, we might somehow find a way to mold, recast, and refine our unhappy histories for our own sake — to let ourselves see our pasts differently... to start creating a brand new life. The hero, the artist, rises in us victorious."

[From her post on the Inspired blog: What Writing Taught Me]

Also see her article Every Blessing and Curse is a Choice. Choose the Blessing!

Her book: Help Is On Its Way: A True Story

Dr. Elaine Aron says of the book: "Highly sensitive people will recognize their own childhood in Jenna Forrest's radiant painting--using every hue in the emotional spectrum--of her years from seven to seventeen... Readers will be charmed by this sensitive woman's unique creative force, a valuable reminder of their own."

Eric Maisel on the creative value of calming

Creativity coach and author Eric Maisel, PhD says "When you free neurons from their usual grip on small thoughts — ten worries, fifteen errands, and so on — and get to reclaim them.. you experience a 'pregnant emptiness' which is actually your whole mind, now recovered, readying itself to create.

"The 'quieting' serves the 'exploding' of the creative encounter that follows.

"You want enthusiasm, passion, love, curiosity, interest, and so on to inform your work and to exist right in the moment, in the performance moment or the creative moment, while at the same reducing (or eliminating) your fears, worries, anxieties, and so on.

"Creating is not an energy-neutral state: it is a high energy state, with, at its healthiest, enthusiasm and not anxiety driving its engine."

From our interview [about his new book]: Ten Zen Seconds for Purpose, Power and Calm

Creativity in solitude

Musician Ani DiFranco produced her album, "Educated Guess," entirely on her own. An interviewer asked, "Your approach, your energy on the current tour and on the new album seem different. Why is that?"

DiFranco: "The difference is solitude. I have it in my life now..."

In a new Psychology Today article, the author writes about Miina Matsuoka who "lives by herself in New York City. She owns two cats and routinely screens her calls. But before you jump to conclusions, note that she is comfortable hobnobbing in any of five languages for her job as business manager at an international lighting-design firm.

"She just strongly prefers not to socialize, opting instead for long baths, DVDs, and immersion in her art projects."

Continued on main site: Talent Development Resources
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