Shyness, introversion and high sensitivity may overlap with each other, but they are distinct personality traits.
Elaine Aron, PhD notes, “Shyness is learned, not innate. In fact, 30% of HSPs [highly sensitive people] are extraverts, although the trait is often mislabeled as introversion.”
So by her reckoning, 70% or so of sensitive people are introverted. Of course, [...]
Being highly sensitive can be a beneficial trait in many ways, such as enhancing creative expression and leading us toward making more cautiously considered evaluations and decisions.
But being unusually sensitive and inner-directed means we are to an extent “misfits” in a culture like this that so values sociability, extroversion and quick action – all of [...]
Eric Maisel: We need grandeur to survive. As everyday creative people and as artists, it is up to us to supply it for ourselves and for others.
But we tend to forget our possibilities and our responsibilities.
We forget that we are grand creatures who have it in us to create. We forget that grandeur is available [...]
“I’ve suffered enough. When does my artwork improve?”
Refrigerator magnet from stickergiant.com
“Suffering is justified as soon as it becomes the raw material of beauty.” Jean-Paul Sartre
The tortured artist mythology is an ancient and enduring notion: that art comes mainly from suffering, and artists are likely to be fraught with suffering and dark emotions, and even [...]
By guest author Matt Cardin.
After having fallen into semi-official disrepute among the mainstream Western literati and intelligentsia for a century or three, the muse/genius/daimon was resurrected and rehabilitated for a new era beginning roughly in the 1990s.
Yes, Jung and the entire field of analytical psychology had valiantly championed the idea of the objectivity of the [...]
Many people have been helped by professionals who make use of the labels and categories of mental health issues detailed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM.
But many critics question the institutionalized categorizing of so much human behavior as “disorder” instead of ordinary experience, healthy divergence or even aspects of giftedness.
Labels [...]
“Talent will out.” If that old aphorism were really true, those with the highest potential to make the world better would inevitably have the opportunities and power to provide a constant supply of art masterpieces, to lead medical, political and business organizations, or otherwise realize their advanced potentials.
What keeps so many high potential people from [...]
Leonardo DiCaprio was amazing in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993), portraying a teenager with mental health challenges.
Not knowing his work before, I thought, How was this autistic kid able to work as an actor?
One of the ways he created such a powerful and – many people say – authentic, performance was using his body language, [...]
James C. Kaufman is a creativity researcher and Associate Professor of Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino.
Here are some excerpts from his Psychology Today blog post “A Creativity Researcher’s Thoughts on the Oscars.”
If anyone gets discouraged about their creative progress in their careers, take heart from Mauro Fiore.
The cinematographer won the Academy Award for [...]
Kendall SummerHawk is “an expert in business coaching, branding, and marketing for self-employment success.”
In this article, she is addressing business growth – but the emotional and psychological issues she talks about are important for other areas of personal development as well.
What You Must Let Go Of To Grow
I hear it all the time: “Kendall, I [...]
Embracing our identity as gifted and talented is not easy for many of us to do. Why is this so tough? What beliefs about giftedness get in our way? In his article, How to Charm Gifted Adults into Admitting Giftedness: Their Own and Somebody Else’s, excerpted below, Willem Kuipers discusses the challenge of [...]
Kathryn Bigelow just became winner of the first Academy Award ever presented to a female director, for her outstanding Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker.
In an interview about her work as writer-director of Blue Steel (1989), Bigelow noted, “If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle [...]
Scott Barry Kaufman notes, “Although their unusual abilities compel considerable attention, there are fewer than 100 known prodigious savants living at the present time.”
He interviews one of these extraordinary people for his Beautiful Minds blog. Here is an excerpt:
Daniel Tammet: I don’t think it serves very much to label someone. IQ is a very good [...]
On her Gifted Universe site, Elisa provides a good summary of brainwave entrainment. Here is an excerpt:
How to shut or slow down the hamster wheel of a gifted mind? This is question I’ve been asked and have sometimes asked myself.
Truthfully, it’s only recently that I’ve become aware of the potential for my brain to ramp [...]
A University of Pennsylvania-led study in which training was provided to a high-stress U.S. military group preparing for deployment to Iraq has demonstrated a positive link between mindfulness training, or MT, and improvements in mood and working memory.
Mindfulness is the ability to be aware and attentive of the present moment without emotional reactivity or volatility.
The [...]
In her post Are Introverts More Creative than Extraverts?, Elizabeth Wagele writes about how this key personality dimension relates to creative expression. Here is an excerpt :
My café friends and I, mostly introverts, were discussing where our various kinds of creativity came from recently. Our DNA is probably mostly responsible, but we each pointed to [...]
Even people with exceptional talents can feel insecure and struggle with developing healthy self-esteem.
Meryl Streep, for example, has said, “I have varying degrees of confidence and self-loathing…. You can have a perfectly horrible day where you doubt your talent… Or that you’re boring and they’re going to find out that you don’t know what you’re [...]
By guest author Shelley Berc. “We are all born creative, curious, and hungry to explore the world around and within us.
“For a child, creativity is expressed in play and play is the way he learns. Life is just one big erector set that is to be snapped together and pulled apart in a thousand different [...]
“I am shy and I don’t start relationships with people normally. I guess I have a way that can seem aloof and sort of cold. They didn’t like me that much, but I never resented it. I was different than they were.”
Actor Kristin Kreuk – about being in high school.
Being highly sensitive may include or [...]
Darold Treffert, MD explains, “Savant Syndrome is a rare, but spectacular, condition in which persons with various developmental disabilities, including Autistic Disorder, have astonishing islands of ability or brilliance that stand in stark, markedly incongruous contrast to the over-all handicap.” From his article The Savant Syndrome: Islands of Genius.
Daniel Tammet , as one example, is [...]
J.K. Rowling has described herself as a girl as “short, squat, very thick glasses — that’s why Harry wears glasses.
“I was shy. I was a mixture of insecurities and very bossy to my sister, but quite quiet with strangers. Very bookish. Terrible at school. That whole thing about Harry being able to fly so well [...]
“You have a companion. One that never, ever leaves you. It sticks with you, staying even closer than your shadow. It is like a leech sucking your blood, and you cannot shake it loose.
“This constant companion is your mental chatter.
“Another name for it is your internal monologue. It begins the moment you open your eyes [...]
