My Scrap Angel: Life Lessons Learned While Quilting

Sharon Barnes Contemplative Handwork, Creative Healing, emotional resilience, Existential Depression, Grief and loss, Hero's Journey, Overcoming Adversity Leave a Comment

Have you ever started a creative project that went so badly you trashed it? I have–more times than I’d like to admit. I had heard that mistakes can be our finest learning experiences, but I’d not relished that idea until I reclaimed one of my discarded pieces, and unexpectedly discovered how to reclaim my life, too. An hourglass quilt block I had made from scraps contained too many mistakes to use, so I pitched it. The triangles didn’t have points; I could have done better when I was nine years old. The parallel lines weren’t parallel–they would have made a …

I Hate Mothers Day

Sharon Barnes CASIGY, Creative Coping, emotional resilience, Gifted, gifted relationships, Grief and loss, Highly Sensitive, Holiday Advice, Inspiration, Overcoming Adversity, Perfectionism, Self-Acceptance, Soul Care Leave a Comment

Reflections on How to to Heal our Lives, Feed our Souls, and Grow our Dreams I hate Mother’s Day. Awful though it sounds, I’ve hated mother’s day for a very long time.  I’ve also felt guilty that I hated it. I also know it’s not politically correct, so I’ve not said it out loud. But it’s time to admit it. I hate Mother’s Day. I first hated it when I was in my twenties. I felt hurt and angry at my mother for many things that she had done or not done that I felt hurt me when I was …

Remembering Columbine: Helping Creative, Highly Sensitive & Gifted Adults Heal from Trauma

Sharon Barnes CASIGY, Creative Healing, Gifted, gifted children, Grief and loss, Highly Sensitive, highly sensitive child, trauma Leave a Comment

Remembering Columbine – healing trauma for creative sensitive gifted people. Nineteen years ago this Friday, April 20, 1999, my husband Gary and I connected for a rare lunch together. As we munched on our sandwiches under a restaurant patio umbrella, we saw police car after police car roaring south through Lakewood on Wadsworth Blvd, sirens wailing . Chills went up and down my spine as we also heard the rumble of big military type helicopters overhead. We saw that they were all heading for Columbine-our new neighborhood, where we had lived for only six weeks.  We knew something BIG and BAD …

Happy Halloween

Sharon Barnes Creative Coping, Creative Healing, Grief and loss, Holiday Advice, Inspiration, Jungian psychology, Overcoming Adversity, Self-Acceptance, Soul Care Leave a Comment

Today is Halloween – the one day in the year that we dress up in costumes, put on masks and . . . . well, we pay attention and even homage to parts of ourselves that we hide and put away the rest of the year. Psychologically speaking, this is a very healthy and an even necessary thing, especially for highly sensitive people, which, of course, includes many creative and gifted people as well. For it is when we repress, or pretend that we don’t have darkness within ourselves, that it goes underground. Pretending that we have no darkness inside …

Healing Trauma in Creative, Sensitive and Gifted People

Sharon Barnes CASIGY, Creative Coping, Creativity, Gifted, Grief and loss, Highly Sensitive, trauma Leave a Comment

Healing Trauma in Creative Sensitive Gifted People: Many creative, sensitive, and gifted people are traumatized by the media coverage of the 15th anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City. Of course it’s appropriate to remember this  world-changing event and honor those who have been deeply affected by it.  So to help CASIGYs™ heal from this and other trauma, I’m republishing my article – Healing Trauma in Creative Sensitive Gifted People Six weeks before the Columbine High School shooting in April of 1999, my husband and I with our teenage sons, moved into the Columbine West …

How to Prevent Holiday Meltdowns!

Sharon Barnes CASIGY, Creative Coping, Gifted, Grief and loss, Highly Sensitive, Holiday Advice, Self-Acceptance, Soul Care

Have past holidays been a nightmare due to ‘inevitable’ holiday meltdowns? Do you dread upcoming holiday family gatherings? It may not be a fun thing to admit, but there wouldn’t be so many movie and sitcom comedies about disastrous holiday family gatherings if it weren’t so common. So if you’re not looking forward to holiday family gatherings, know that you’re not alone, and that if you wish, you can let go of any guilt or shame you feel around dreading them. The perfect family does not exist on this planet, from the very first family to the First Family in …

World Suicide Prevention Day – September 10, 2014

Sharon Barnes Existential Depression, Gifted, Grief and loss

World Suicide Prevention Day – September 10, 2014 Join me in Lighting a Candle near a Window at 8 PM to show your support for suicide prevention, to remember a lost loved one, and for the survivors of suicide. Each year 800,000 people worldwide die from suicide- more than wars and homicide combined. CASIGYs- Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive, Intense, and/or Gifted You-s are especially prone to Existential Depression. Stay tuned for more info and more help in coming days. . . . .

Remembering Columbine

Sharon Barnes CASIGY, Grief and loss Leave a Comment

[This post was published April 20, 2013]  A few evenings ago, I had the privilege of eating dinner in the Bistro at Aspen Grove, in Littleton, Colorado (USA) with a good friend and colleague. She and I talked about the Boston Marathon, her niece who ran it this year, how my friend found out about the bombing, how her niece fared in the race, and most importantly WAS SHE SAFE? (She was.)  My friend got a text from her sister that prompted her to turn on the TV. She was at home that day, and as she sat down in …