Architecture of Meaning

Cultivating Meaningful Engagement for the Highly Sensitive Person

We assume that being highly gifted carries with it a capacity for self expression and a comfort in communication. As if the gift naturally comes with an accompanying mechanism that facilitates sharing. It is often exactly the opposite.

…The longing to belong, to connect, to live in a field of connectedness is as strong for the gifted as for anyone else. However, the road to this belonging is much harder to find. The mere act of reaching out and asking for help can be excruciating for the highly gifted.

Evolving while in relationship can present its unique challenges. Personal transformation can arise out of a midlife crisis, an accident or illness or a natural unfolding. Whatever way it arrives, the process that is transformation can up-end all habits, intentions and ways of relating to others.

It is unlikely that one’s partner will be facing the same challenges, issues and crises at the same time you are. In fact, it is often fortunate that two people are not traversing the same disorienting and treacherous terrain at the same time.

Imagine if we relabeled the hypochondriac.
Instead we could speak of the medical field that is blind to fields of energy and subtle awareness. We could speak about the highly sensitive nervous system of the patient.We could enroll these patients in training programs to learn to understand energy fields and ways to work with their subtle levels of awareness.

Hypochondria may be the state of worrying about minor health issues. It is also certain that many people who have been labeled hypochondriacal are highly aware individuals who are attuning to levels of information unavailable to most.

The chronic anxiety, self doubt and high level of inner criticism that claim the free will of many HSPs are all states that can be effectively addressed with therapy. Anyone who understands their HSP nature to mean that these traits are part of the given terrain, are misunderstanding the possibilities. While being an HSP may tend to tilt one in the direction of these experiences -these experiences are not indelible parts of the picture….

Deep work - transformative work - is limited when one is struggling with chronic anxiety. The anxiety indicates that the system is not feeling safe. Whether this is anxiety is a result of childhood trauma and/or a result of living with a highly sensitive nervous system, addressing the anxiety is one of the first steps to gaining greater freedom in one’s life. This is the work to be done with a skilled therapist.

Between the news about what is turning upside down and the reactions to this upending - from fear to radical doctrines of change - not only is the news more intense, but the messages of what to do to bring about change are at an all time fevered pitch. While the media brings you news of crises from all over the world, severe environmental crises are more frequent than ever before. The water is beginning to boil in the pot that is our life on earth.

What is the role of the sensitive in a time of increasing chaos? When each day there are more and more reasons for people to be frightened, overwhelmed and self absorbed, how does the sensitive respond? How, when you are more vulnerable and attuned to minor shifts and changes than others, do you manage the deluge of dramatic upheavals?