This is an excerpt from my post that was taken from the website HighlySensitivePeople.com:
Do you relate? I do. It helped me to know that I really am different from 80% of the people. And that 20% of you are just like me. I am sensitive. I don't just think so. I am so. There is a biological difference in my nervous system. It's how I'm wired.Pearl S. Buck, (1892-1973), recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938, once said about highly sensitive people:
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:
A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him...
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, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
—Pearl S. Buck
If you want to know more about this incredible gift that can often feel like a burden, read on. Find out if you, too, are a Highly Sensitive Person.
And, if you are? Yana. You are not alone.
~Olivia J. Herrell
13 comments:
Abraham Maslow might have called them "self-actualized" individuals. People who had set aside the total self-focus most people have to look outside of themselves -- and oddly, in doing that becoming all that they could be.
An interesting, thought-provoking post. Thanks, Roland
Oh, do I ever relate. I am INFJ in Keirsey Temperament Theory too- the so-called 'supersensitive' type. They say less than 3 or so percent of the population is this type...I wonder if you are too?
Taking the Sorter and learning about temperament theory really helped me as a person, and a writer.
loved this post. Will remember that quotation...thank you so much for it.
bru
I am. Found it on another blog, and related to all the "symptoms". I'm one of the "anti-social" types as well, I'm better on my own (should I tell the truth? I'm better with my "babies" (characters) than real people! :-D)
Nice meeting you!
Barb the Blog Hopper
Yes, yes, and yes. I am HSp and also what everyone else said above. I can't even watch Hallmark commercials. I cry over everything.
According to another test I took somewhere apparently I'm an HSP too :)
A misfortune is a tragedy,
A failure is death,
A traffic ticket . . . sucks.
Yep, I am HSP, too.
Thank you for this. I'll have to check out that link.
I spent my childhood listening to my mother tell me, "You're too sensitive. Get over it." If I cried over a dead baby bird that fell from it's nest, I was pathetic. But she told me to stop crying at my father's funeral, too. So I'm not sure if I'm hypersensitive or she has the sensitivity of a tree frog:)
Never thought about it but I took the test and yes I am HSP. Thanks, now I have to figure out what that REALLY means. :)
Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
See, I KNEW you guys would relate!
Doesn't it just explain so much? Jules, this was not information that I necessarily had to 'do' anything with. It just helped me to know that I'm not 'crazy' or 'pretending so as to get my way'. I really am different.
AND THAT'S OKAY! It just gave me peace about something that had 'bothered me' all my life.
Terry, my mother didn't understand, either. I think most people don't understand because they can't relate. And so it must not be so. Or something must be 'wrong' with me (not them).
Uh-Uh. There's nothing wrong. Our normal is just different from theirs.
Barb, nice meeting you, you have great blog.
And February, I'm going to read about KTT, thank you for sharing that with us. I'm so glad we found each other.
Jemi, hi there fellow HSP!
Piedmont, yes!
Wally, do you always know where everything is and does it make you crazy when it's just not where you know it's supposed to be?
Roland, it's beyond that, though. HSP is an actual physical, biological, physiological, neurological, wiring difference. There is no choice. It just is.
~Olivia
i read something about HSPs a few years ago and photocopied it for later reference because i knew it described me. strange that now you're talking about it. the book never talked about how it related to creativity. that would explain why i'm to melancholy when i'm not writing.
do you know what a relief it is to know there are other HSPs out there and i'm not alone?
Michelle, YES! I do know. I just discovered this a few months ago and it's made a huge difference for me, too.
And isn't it wonderful to learn that it is linked to high creativity? I'm so glad we're finding each other. And to know that there are LOTS of us out here.
~Olivia
That's me in a nutshell! But, I did one of those online things and, let me see if I can find it right quick...hang on, brb...ISFJ-introverted, sensing, feeling, judging. Hmmmm. Doesn't sound too good. Interesting, provocative post.
INTJ here, but just on the edge of T/F.
therefore... just insensitive enough to think it through before falling TOTALLY apart. I get, like, 3/4 of the way and can usually pull myself back.
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