When one small thing breaks the camel's back, its usually time to stop and pay full attention. So often, its a clue to how we have been giving ourselves to everything, and everyone, else and not to our own needs...a key trait to notice when we have chronic conditions (because there seems to be a link)...
Being an HSP isn't a flaw but an evolutionary advantage, as has been amply demonstrated by science and history. We were always meant to be the natural outliers of the community, by design, so that we could be the first to notice important things that others miss, picking up envornmental cues and alerting others to any danger that we sensed coming our way. But what happens when our alarms start to go off all the time and when or how do we get a respite? How does this relate to the modern age phenomenon of chronic pain, fatigue and systemic meltdown?
It's been a while since I wrote about Myers Briggs personality types though the method remains one of the most consistently useful tools I have ever used to come to deeply understand myself. Yesterday, I happened upon a particular foible of each personality type called a “grip stress" state, something I had never come across … Continue reading INFJ “Grip Stress” sheds light on lasting trauma and chronic pain
Highly Sensitive People spend whole lifetimes feeling like we live on the fringe of all fringes, dancing someone else’s dance (carefully), feeling odd when we compare ourselves with what are supposedly “normal” reactions to everyday situations, when we feel unable to join in because things get too much for us such as when life is too noisy, busy or triggering to be borne by our finely tuned wiring and when we just can’t manage the loneliness of being, apparently, the only one who notices things that, to us, are obvious…So, from now on, let all that be for a higher reason; embrace its potential, not its weirdness or other people's misfits ideas about it. This trait has been proven to be an evolutionary potential in every one of the many species where it has been found to exist (in just 20% of the population in every case) and it is also shown not to be a pathology, so let's stop acting like it is. Now is the time to dare to be, unapologetically, ourselves...or walk off to where we feel better and are listened to and truly valued for our gifts, even be alone for a while to recover and grow ourselves, rather than this endless rub and rejection.
Stress has been the modern pandemic since long before covid-19 came along, which is why so many people and systems have been wrong-footed by it...but therein lies the opportunity to evolve. individually and collectively.
We are going through some significant transitions right now, and many of us in our personal lives too; so what do these transitional phases have to tell us; what are they about at the personal and broadest level....and how are these all linked together. Speaking as one who feels them quite profoundly in my body, these are my thoughts...
Appreciating the difference between feelings and emotions...and why this is just so important to someone (like me) on the autism spectrum.
At the risk of this sounding like an over generalisation, it seems to me that neurotypical people mostly take in their impressions of the world through their heads and their fingertips whereas, as someone with Asperger’s (and I have read about this trait a lot in Aspie accounts), I seem to take in my impressions … Continue reading Impressionable: a breakthrough in working with super-sensitivity
Imagine going through life at cross-purposes with most of the people around you...not because you are broken but because you are different to a degree you didn't realise until now. Plunging the challenging world of neurodiverse relationships from personal experience, from some books I can recommend and from the perspective of some fresh new approaches to autism that are (thankfully) starting to appear.
The legacy of childhood stress can be far longer-lasting for some personality types than others; thus getting to know your type can be like a key to the door ready to unlock the gift of that stress. It may even help launch you into a whole other paradigm…
Living whole 