What do you get when you cross high sensitivity with curiosity, creativity, and community? What do you get when the cage turns into a gate? You get the power to change the world.
Rather than merely managing our overwhelm, we can strengthen our oddness, turning attention from getting by in a predominantly non-highly sensitive culture to getting together to create our own culture and to learn from cultures where high sensitivity is valued.
Further, if our sensitive culture doesn’t close the gates on the rest of the world, but gives ourselves all we need to thrive and be strong, alone and together, while we walk proudly in the world at large, what would change about the world?
The word power has numerous meanings, including the ability to act; strength; energy, force, momentum; a person or thing that possesses or exercises authority or influence. Highly sensitive people have unique powers, abilities that stand out in a crowd. It’s time to stand up as a crowd, to both have powers and be a power, to shift a paradigm, starting from within, so that, like the bird with the final word in Anders Nilsen’s cartoon, we inhabit a paradigm that frees us.
This is not a call for ascendancy or domination. There’s not a contest between highly sensitive people and non-highly sensitive people. The embodied gradations between sensitive and non-sensitive are too infinite to draw that line with any real clarity anyway. The call here is for equality and balance, for strength tempered by good intentions, for the long view.
Sensitive awareness that’s free to question, to create, and to join in community is capable of rare feats. The world needs us now, so get cracking on pushing the gate open and let us see your shine.
A little puff of air revived me. It seemed to come from the hedge; and when I opened my eyes, there was a glint of light through the tangle of boughs and dead leaves.
~ E. M. Forster, “The Other Side of the Hedge,” in The Celestial Omnibus and other Stories
3 Comments
Hi Grace, I really enjoyed going through your website and I am thinking of adding a link from my Links Page on my http://www.HighlySensitivePeople.com website, if that’s OK with you? Have you visited my website? I’d love to get your comments, your thoughts and feelings. Thank you in advance for considering putting a link under your “Resources” page to my website, you have my permission to do that and do I have your permission to add yours to my website? Thank you for your consideration. Last month, my Internet provider stats said we over 300,000 “hits” on the website form all over the world.
I also was going to mention that I looked at the larger version of you out in that square intensely writing and deep in thought, and noticed the two other chairs were placed leaned up against the table and seemed to be saying: “Thank you for understanding, but I’m not interested having any company right now.” Am I correct in my interpretation, because it seems very much in keeping with the HSP temperament.
My best wishes to you Grace!
And, keep up your wonderful work!
Jim Hallowes
http://www.HighlySensitivePeople.com
E-mail: Jim@HighlySensitivePeople.com
Jim, thank you so much for your comment and your interest. I’ve already been checking out your site and planning to write to you even before you wrote this. Yes! I would love to be mentioned on your site and I will be glad to add you to the resources page of my website. I’m in the process of updating a number of things over the next week. Feel free to be in touch with me via email (I’m at grace@highlysensitivepower.com). I’ll enjoy being in touch with you – I’ll send an email to you soon.
Great observation about the chairs in the lower author photo. I actually lowered the chair I was sitting in so I could write at the table, but I remember liking the idea that the other chairs conveyed my desire for private time. Very HSP of me to do that and of you to notice.
Thanks again, Jim!
Changing the tag line disturbs me.I am pleased the site attracts others who are not highly sensitive. But I am highly sensitive to remaking the line to ” one site fits all”. It’s a bit like dumbing down education so it fits everyone. “They” are the reason “we” are needing empowerment.
Don’t cave. Approval of the less sensitive is NOT the answer.
Chery
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