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photo from book Women
- by Annie Leibovitz, Susan Sontag
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"There
have been some traumatic experiences in my life that have resulted in
my feeling that maybe I was going insane for a little while... How do
you ever explain the feelings of anxiety and paralysing fear? I can't
answer those questions. It's just a feeling of 'Am I crazy? Am I too
sensitive to be in this world?' A feeling that the world is just too
complicated for me right now, and I don't feel like I belong here. But
it passes, and fortunately today I feel blessed for all the good things
in my life."
The truly creative mind in any field is
no more than this: A human
creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive.
To them... a touch is a
blow, a
sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a
friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the
overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the
creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of
meaning, their very breath is cut off...
They must create, must
pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are
not really alive unless they are creating.
Pearl
Buck [1892-1973] Her novel The Good Earth (1931) won a
Pulitzer Prize, and in 1938 she won the Nobel Prize in literature.
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sensitivity
Heath
Ledger cried all night after being attacked with water pistols by
paparazzi at the Sydney premiere of Brokeback Mountain - and later sold
his $4.45 million beachside home in Australia to relocate to Brooklyn
with partner Michelle Williams and baby Matilda. [The Daily Telegraph June 08, 2006]
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William Gibson on his novel "Pattern
Recognition"
Q
: Your main character, Cayce Pollard, is a young woman who specializes
in pattern recognition - in recognizing group behavior around certain
cultural objects or activities or events or ideas before anyone else
does. ... she's exquisitely sensitive to them.
On the other, she can
be physically repulsed by them - particularly by certain forms of
advertising or fashion or corporate marketing. Do you think this is a
common experience today?
William Gibson : I
would imagine so. In a sense we need that sensitivity to navigate, but
I also think we need a healthy layer of callous to protect us. Cayce is
lacking that.
From intervierw on williamgibsonbooks.com
about his novel Pattern
Recognition
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Learning
to thrive as a Highly Sensitive Soul presents challenges. If you're
sensitive,
you have likely accumulated years of training in trying overcome the
trait
because you don’t "fit in" with society.
And
yet being Highly Sensitive is a vital part of you.
A first
step toward thriving as a Sensitive Soul is to understand and accept
your
trait.
Hear
this now: There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You are just
different.
As one of my clients says, being Highly Sensitive is both a gift and a
responsibility.
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Sensitive
Souls require regular self-care, meaningful work, and supportive
relationships.
Working with a sensitive coach or therapist who helps you tune into
your
own magnificent inner guidance system -- your sensitivity -- is a
powerful
means of support. ...
As you
begin to manage your life in a way that truly works for you, you will
trust
the power and gift of your sensitivity, and be inspired to share your
much-needed
wisdom with the world.
I'm too sensitive to watch most of the reality
shows. It's so painful for me.
Amy Brenneman...
[Hollywood Reporter, Aug 11 2003]
Amy
Brenneman is a graduate of Harvard, where she majored in comparative
religion. She spent one semester studying sacred dances in Nepal. While
in college, she formed the Cornerstone Theater Company, and is an
executive producer and writer of her series "Judging Amy." [from
imdb.com bio]
"Ted
Zeff shares many thoughtful insights and solutions to problems for
highly
sensitive people. This is an excellent collection of new, practical
coping
strategies."
Elaine
Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person
Highly
Sensitive People (HSP) make up some 20 percent of the population,
who
both
enjoy and wrestle with a finely tuned nervous system..
HSPs
tend to be sensitive to noise, smells, lights, feel
overwhelmed
by crowds and time pressure or can't screen out stimuli.
They
also tend to be very sensitive to pain, the effects of caffeine and
violent
movies.
This
accessible, practical guide contains strategies to help you survive and
thrive in an over-stimulating world. Build your coping skills by
exploring
the book's engaging exercises.
Author Ted Zeff
- from
posting in hspbook list [Yahoo group]
"I'll
cry at anything, even a tissue commercial," confesses Mandy
Moore... "I'm overly
sensitive. It's so easy
to hurt my feelings." ....from site: allstarz.org/~mandymoore/
"I'm
extremely-extremely sensitive. I can cry at the drop of a hat. I'm such
a girl when it comes to that. Anything upsets me. I cry all the time. I
cry when I'm happy too."
from absolutely.net
"I'm
really overly sensitive. I get my feelings hurt very easily, and
sometimes
I just cry for no reason, and I hate
that." malaya.com
March 21 2004
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An
intuitive
empath is someone who not only senses energy but also absorbs it from
others
and the environment. Their body takes on the angst of the world. It can
be very draining.
I've
been an intuitive empath since childhood which prompted my exploration
of this phenomena. I couldn't go to shopping malls or crowded places
because
I'd get overwhelmed by the energy.
I'd
walk in feeling fine and walk out exhausted, anxious or with a new ache
or pain. I told my mother who was a physician and she said, "Oh no,
dear,
you just don't have a thick enough skin."
So
I thought there was something wrong with me.
Only
as an adult did I realize that I'm an empath and I was absorbing the
energy
of crowds. Being
compressed in crowds can zap your energy. Traditional medicine doesn't
address this at all, but Energy Psychiatry does.
Judith
Orloff, MD
from article
: Dr. Judith Orloff and Positive Energy - By
Susan Meeker Lowrey
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also
see interviewby Douglas
Eby with Judith Orloff - author
of the book
.Positive
Energy : 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for
Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear intoVibrance,
Strength & Love
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Without
sensitivity what would life be like? Sensitivity nurtures us, gives
life
color, expressiveness, charm - provides a basis for terror.
Sensitivity,
feeling and thinking feed each other, are part of each other. Thinking
and feeling are ways sensitivity unfolds or grows.
We
speak of emotional sensitivity, reflective sensitivity, not just the
raw
life of sensations. But without the sensory sea we take for granted,
feeling
and thought would dry up and die.
We
have the capacity to focus on different aspects of our experiential
matrix,
to select a bit of experience and zoom in on it, detach it from other
aspects
of experience for a time and try to see what it is made up of.
Attempts
have been made to abstract sensation from the flow of experience and
study
its qualities.
Freud
wrote of chaotic sensory fields streaming through the body, involving
inside
and outside of skin, mucus membranes, glands, aliveness of
tissues.
This
readily expands to include proprioceptive and kinesthetic sensation,
nerves,
muscles, even a vision of cellular aliveness.
Not
all or most sensations throb and pulse, but one well knows what the
latter
mean. For Freud, such sensitivity is mediated by what he calls a
pleasure
or body ego, an idea which resonates with older writings on "the
flesh,"
"concupiscence," mischievous, destructive, enlivening Eros.
Highly
Sensitive People
have an uncommonly
sensitive nervous system - a normal occurrence, according to Elaine
Aron.
"About
15 to 20 percent of the population have this trait. It means you are
aware
of subtleties in your surroundings, a great advantage in many
situations.
"It
also means you are more easily overwhelmed when you have been out in a
highly stimulating environment for too long, bombarded by sights and
sounds
until you are exhausted."
An
HSP herself, Aron reassures other Highly Sensitives that they are quite
normal. Their trait is not a flaw or a syndrome, nor is it a reason to
brag. It is an asset they can learn to use and protect.
from
summary of book The Highly Sensitive Person
on
The Highly Sensitive Person site
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Elaine
Aron, PhD graduated Phi Beta Kappa from
the
University of California, Berkeley.
"About 15 to 20
percent of the population have this trait. It means you are aware of
subtleties in your surroundings, a great advantage in many situations.
It also means you are more easily overwhelmed when you have been out in
a highly stimulating environment for too long..." Elaine
Aron
Without
sensitivity what would life be like? Sensitivity nurtures us, gives
life
color, expressiveness, charm - provides a basis for terror.
....books
by Elaine Aron: 
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