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 …
For HSP & GT Youth: Do Intense Emotions Mean I have a Mental Disorder?
Here’s a post to share with your HSP or Gifted Kids and Teens: A high school senior recently told me, “I think I must have some mental disorder. I’ve been searching online since I was in middle school to find out what it is.” As we talked, it became clear that intense emotions were the source of this big concern. “I wish I had heard this when I was in middle school” a high school senior told me a few weeks ago, at the end of a talk I gave to highly sensitive and gifted students and their parents. “It …
The Change of Seasons Inspires Personal Changes
The Changing of Seasons Inspires Personal Changes — How CASIGYs™ Can Make Desired Changes Happen in Your Life The changing of seasons is a perfect time to make other changes in our lives. One of my mentors, Dick Huston, used to say that when the weather made significant shifts from season to season, he’d see people make changes that they had been “sitting on” for a while. I’ve noticed the same thing—both in others, and in myself. In light of this, here I share some insights into the process of change especially for CASIGYs (Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive, Intense and/or Gofted …
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 2)
Strategy #3 of Seven Strategies to Cope with the Differences of Being Highly Sensitive or Gifted: CASIGYs Have Mascots! Sports teams, schools and universities and even some corporations have mascots. Why not CASIGYs (Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive, Intense and/or Gifted You-s)? After all, a Mascot is “an animal, person, or thing adopted by a group as its representative symbol and supposed to bring good luck”[i]. I’d say CASIGYs need all of this. Having a Mascot may, first and foremost, remind you and your children that YOU’RE NOT ALONE! The story of these Mascots shows that they have both “experienced” and …
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 …
Five Tools to Solve Behavior Problems with Gifted, ADHD Kids
Is Your House Haunted by the Mayhem Monster? Five Tools to Solve Behavior Problems with Gifted ADHD Kids: Many kids, especially those with ADD, AD/HD or who are Gifted, Creative or Highly Sensitive feel the need to stimulate their brains. For lack of better methods, they create chaos & crisis. Voila! The Mayhem Monster is born and grows bigger each time it’s activated. Unfortunately, the Mayhem Monster wrecks havoc on family harmony, homework assignments, friendships, and life in general. Once it takes over, even the best of parents can feel helpless to get rid of it. But the Mayhem Monster …
Transformation
Waht is death to the caterpillar is birth to the butterfly.
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 …
Facing CASIGY Inferiority
Different by Design: How CASIGYs Can MOVE From FEELING Defective to BEING Distinctive Highly creative, acutely aware, super- sensitive, intense and/or gifted youth and adults, whom I like to call CASIGYs™, are often assumed to have an (unfair) advantage over others because of their higher observable abilities. Unfortunately however, it is not unusual for a CASIGY’s inner experience of life to stand in stark contrast to the privilege and advantage that they are rumored to be experiencing. The characteristics that CASIGYs™ carry within them may be wonderful and also can cause great distress. Creativity and creative expression can fun but can also be a great burden. …