The word from my heart pocket is Sensitivity.
Have you experienced a moment when everything seemed completely clear? It might stop you in your tracks on the most ordinary day. Suddenly everything feels ... easy. You aren't struggling. You aren't worried. Your senses are aroused and peaked. You don't feel fat or broke or unsuccessful. In that moment, you feel in tune, perfectly pitched within your life. For that moment, you are.
Our sensitivity to our surroundings defines our experience in the world. Exactly as it feels, every experience is unique to each person. Different people encounter identical outward circumstances and can experience them exactly opposite. Contrary to how it feels, every experience begins inside ourselves. Our cognizance, our emotional state, our habits and our belief system - everything we are comes into play when our sensitivity responds to every second - every nanosecond - of our lives.
Let's talk about what sensitivity is. An acute impression. A consciousness to self and beyond. Affected by a situation, an idea, a belief. The nervous system is keenly in tune with one's surroundings. A knowing and understanding. A relationship quality. Our many senses are heightened including perception and intuition. We are vulnerable in this state if we are deeply hurt or enduring great pain. We are ingenious - in genius - penetrating the usual layers of emotional fog and the distracting noise of the world. In its most practiced form, our sensitivity is one of our most powerful human tools. It is our willingness to be vulnerable that fuels this power. It is our choice to see beyond ourselves that makes us sensitive. Every human being has this incredible tool at his disposal and completely at his discretion. Any choice made without using this tool is questionable.
The source of sensitivity is personal. It begins by being sensitive to oneself. If we avoid our feelings, discard our self-worth, devalue and discount ourselves, we cannot be sensitive to others in a balanced way. We will come to the aid of others from a needy place. Our intuition will be blocked and our advice and help will be colored by our own lack of self-knowledge. This doesn't mean we should wait to help others before we are "perfect". When we offer help - in an emergency or in an act of good will - we are practicing our sensitivity and we give ourselves the opportunity to learn not only about others, most of all, about ourselves.
To be sensitive is to be human. It means we want to get and give love. It is basic to our nature. Any act that isn't sensitive bears examination.
To live sensitively isn't a prerequisite to living. But like each of our behavioral choices, with practice it becomes a habit ... and this particular habit enhances and deepens the beauty of daily life.
To live sensitively isn't a prerequisite to living. But like each of our behavioral choices, with practice it becomes a habit ... and this particular habit enhances and deepens the beauty of daily life.
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"Sensitivity" is an aspect of being that certainly can vary, in our day-to-day, and as a foundational state in someone's personality. I think of those whose highly-sensitive nature causes the experience of the world to feel overwhelming. How many times do we block life, and our sensitivity to it and others, because to tune in more would feel like overload? We've all had our moments. Bless those for whom those are numerous.
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