New Year’s Eve, 2017 started with a bang in Highlands Ranch, my home town. Before sunrise, police answered a domestic dispute call. Before it was all over, one officer was killed and other officers and citizens were wounded, according to the Denver Post. This photo shows law enforcement officers gathering by Littleton Adventist Hospital to form a motorcade in honor of the fallen officer. Tragedy such as this, natural disasters, terrorism and mass shootings may impact all of us, even when we are far away from the action. When we are directly involved in a life-threatening situation, we experience direct …
FREE Webinar: How CASIGYs™ Can Thrive Through the Holidays
Are you Creative, Super-Sensitive and/or Gifted, AKA a CASIGY™? Have Previous Holiday Seasons left you feeling frustrated or hurting emotionally? Are you Thinking, “THIS YEAR the Holidays MUST be BETTER!”? Here’s Hope and Help from Sharon M. Barnes, MSSW, LCSW, Therapist for Sensitive and Gifted. I’m giving a Free Webinar: How CASIGYs™ Can Thrive Through the Holidays! Join me in this Free Webinar, where you’ll learn: Life Lessons We Can Learn From Classic Holiday Movies That Can Help Us Improve Our Holiday Experience as CASIGYS How To Bring Soulfulness In, So Your Holidays Have Depth And Meaning How To Sensitively Navigate Difficult …
What Can a Creative Sensitive or Gifted Person Do When You Don’t Feel Grateful
What can a Creative Sensitive or Gifted Person do when you don’t feel grateful, especially on the annual day set aside for giving thanks? If you’re like most CASIGYs™, you probably feel guilty about it. Beyond that, the short answer is that you can feel what you feel! And then you have the opportunity to deal with how you feel.The long answer is, well, the rest of this post. What do I mean, “you feel what you feel”? When you don’t feel grateful when you think you should, that usually means that you’re feeling something else. Maybe you’re feeling anxious, …
How to Face Bad Dreams – for Highly Sensitive or Gifted Children & Adults
Not long ago, two sensitive, gifted children came in on the same day telling me some recent bad dreams. These were intense sessions. It was hard for them to tell their bad/scary dreams. Their moms were also worried about what these dreams might reveal – about their child’s psyches, about their parenting, about what the dreams might mean. Bad, scary dreams are hard for anyone to deal with, especially children. And when you add sensitivity and intensity into the mix, well, strap on your boots, we’re getting serious here! We did unravel these dreams, and their possible meanings. I helped …
Pandora’s Box of Emotions
As you may recall, the myth of Pandora’s Box involved a Forbidden Box which was not supposed to be opened, but of course WAS opened, and then unleashed Evil . . . . and finally, Hope. We each have similar boxes; ours are often boxes of emotions. I remember standing with my father in his home office when I was a young adult. We were talking about life, and coping with emotions. I told him that getting in touch with my emotions had not helped me feel better at all! Instead, getting in touch with my emotions was making me …
CASIGY Coping Tools-Steps 5, 6, 7
Here’s More CASIGY™ Coping Tools This continues Strategy #4 in the series, “7 Strategies to Cope With the Differences of Being a Creative, Highly Sensitive or Gifted Person”. We’ve been talking about CASIGY coping tools (CASIGY™ = Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive and/or Gifted You-s). CASIGY coping tools are ones that are suited to your creativity, sensitivity, intensity and intelligence. In my previous blog post of this series, I introduced the Personal Power Pyramid, a collection of CASIGY coping tools. They help CASIGYs develop Emotional Resilience and build Emotional Core Strength™. In that post, we then discussed the first 4 …
Creative Coping Tools for CASIGYs
Creative Coping Tools for CASIGYs and Skills to Use Them. This begins Strategy #4 in the series, “7 Strategies to Cope With the Differences of Being a Creative, Highly Sensitive or Gifted Person” Creative Coping Tools and skills to use them comprise Phase I of the CASIGY Cycle of Encouragement that I mentioned in my previous blog post. As a CASIGY, you may feel the need for coping tools suited to your creativity, sensitivity, intensity and intelligence. You may have tried many other coping tools for yourself or your children, only to find them ineffective or even aggravating to an …
Seven Strategies to Cope With the DIFFERENCES of Being a Highly Sensitive or Gifted Person. (Part 1)
At least once a week, a highly sensitive or gifted child or adult tells me that they HATE being SO DIFFERENT from other people. They tell me that they feel abnormal and just wish they could be NORMAL! They say things like “I feel like an alien from a different planet!” and ‘What’s WRONG with ME?” Highly sensitive and many gifted people have Central Nervous Systems that are more perceptive and more reactive than that of most people. They perceive many things that go right by most people, from a tiny piece of lint on the floor to the buzz …
How to Help Your Creative, Sensitive or Gifted Kids Weather Emotional Storms
How to help your creative, sensitive or gifted kids weather emotional storms is a frequent dilemma for parents, grandparents and teachers of CASIGYs (Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive, Intense, and/or Gifted You-s). Betty, mother of an eight year old gifted boy recently asked me “When my son comes home from school, I can tell he’s upset by something that happened. I ask him to tell me about it. When he does, he gets even more upset than he already was. I don’t want to make him so upset. But I don’t want to ignore his upset either. Do I wait for …
Life’s A Bicycle – How to Balance Your Life Like You Balance a Bike
Tips & Tools to Balance Your Creative, Sensitive or Gifted Life How’s your ride through life been lately? Smooth? Bumpy? Got a flat? Has the path disappeared? There was a time several years ago when my path disappeared. During that difficult time, I learned that you can balance your life just like you can balance a bike. And so can you. Even if you’re a CASIGY – a Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive Intense, and/or Gifted You! Sounds too simple─ balance your life just like you balance a bike─ doesn’t it? Let’s take a closer look. How old were you when …