Inspiration for Parents and Teachers of Creative, Sensitive or Gifted Children: Here are Nine Life Lessons I Learned On the Road to First Grade: My little quilt, finished except for the label, was a burgundy, mauve and ivory ‘watercolor’ heart-shaped wall hanging. It had taken me many moons to make it, and I was tempted to skip the label. Painters sign their work on the front; quilt artists make a label for the back. But I just wanted to be done with it. I hate making quilt labels, partly because I never know what to say on them, partly because …
How to Ride Out Life’s Tough Times: Hang Loose in the Washing Machine!
Adversity is something everyone faces at some time in their life. Adversity often has a greater impact on CASIGYs™ (Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive, Intense and/or Gifted You-s) than it does on neurotypical people. So, for the CASIGYs™ in your life, here’s How to Ride Out Life’s Tough Times: Hang Loose in the Washing Machine! Several years ago, I was helping one of my counseling clients learn how to cope with overwhelming emotions connected to the adversity he was going through. As we discussed this, I mentally searched for a better way to help him. Suddenly a picture popped into my head: ocean …
Being an Empath – When you Feel Emotions That are not Your Own
Ten year old Aiden (not his real name) dissolves in a puddle of tears. Once he has calmed down and can actually talk about it, you discover that he has no idea why he feels sad. No, he is not hurt physically. No, no one said or did anything that hurt his feelings. No, he is not afraid or scared about anything. You -and he- remain puzzled. As a parent, what do you do? And what is going on here? One possibility is that Aiden is totally disconnected from his emotions and therefore has no idea what is going on. …
Seven Steps To Overcome CASIGY Overwhelm
Have You Noticed it Too? Life Seems to Speed Up This Time of Year! This article was originally written in September (2011), as you will see below. It is just as fitting in May of 2018. This time of year, many of my clients come into my office talking about how stressed they are about time crunches. Some even cancel sessions related to this. Every year, as schools in the northern hemisphere, where I live, wind up their academic years in May or June. So every organization on campus seems to have a special event. Every class has special projects or …
I Hate Mothers Day
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 …
Seven Tips to Help the Creative, Sensitive or Gifted Sleep Peacefully
Sleep can be elusive for anyone, whether you’re 3, 13, 33 or 83. We all have nights where we toss and turn, or get to sleep but we can’t stay asleep. When you’re a CASIGY™ (Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive, Intense, and/or Gifted You), you may face challenges with sleep that have a slightly different twist than others face. And if you have ADHD, Anxiety, Depression or other ‘labels’, sleep can be an even greater challenge. Here’s seven tips to help creative sensitive gifted people sleep peacefully. A creative person may have creative ideas show up as soon as their head hits the pillow. …
Remembering Columbine: Helping Creative, Highly Sensitive & Gifted Adults Heal from Trauma
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 …
How CASIGYs Can Become Social-Emotional ACES
Many highly sensitive, creative, gifted or twice exceptional people struggle to find and keep their balance emotionally. It’s not that they don’t have emotions or aren’t in touch with their emotions, but they tell me that they are often find it challenging and even overwhelming to find ways to cope with them and manage them. But CASIGYs can overcome this overwhelm. Here’s how CASIGYs Can Become Social-Emotional ACES! The top three emotional and mental health concerns of gifted people are Sensitivity Anxiety Depression according to research done and published by SENGifted.org. I have found the same to be true in …
How to Get Unstuck
Do you ever feel stuck? Does one thing after another in life pile on top of another? I can relate. Sometimes we don’t realize we’re getting stuck until we’re immobilized. For Creative, Super-Sensitive or Gifted people, AKA CASIGY’s, this can look like over-committing time, having too much to do with all of it seeming equally important, or being interested in so many things that we have trouble choosing among them . This can take many forms and can easily lead to getting paralyzed and being stuck. The question then becomes, how do we get unstuck when we’re stuck? Working with my hands often …
How to Spring Into Life
How to Spring into Life Reflections and Encouragement for Times When Growth and Change aren’t Easy Next week the Equinox will arrive whether we dread it or welcome it. As I inhabit the Northern Hemisphere, I will be welcoming spring. Do you savor the warmth of the sun after the cold winter, as I do? Do you enjoy seeing trees bud and crocuses, daffodils and tulips bloom, like I do? Maybe you’re a CASIGY™, that is, a Creative, Acutely Aware, Super-Sensitive, Intense, and/or Gifted “You”, and you are intensely aware and tuned in to such things. Do these seasonal changes prompt you …