A Love Letter to You and Your Rainforest Mind

Me in Paris airport 2005 throwing you a kiss

Dear One.

Yes, you. With that dazzlingly intense rainforest mind.

You have so much Courage.

To be here, on this planet, during such tumultuous times. To stay sensitive, empathetic, and compassionate. To perceive and feel the human layers of suffering, despair, rage, fear, and sorrow. To stay open to your deepest emotions. To speak out against injustice. To develop your intuitive abilities even when not-knowing might make your life easier.

You have so much Strength.

To be willing to face your own demons. To persistently uncover the painful patterns of shame, depression, and anxiety handed down to you from your parents and their parents before them. To unravel the legacy of abuse within your ancestral line so that the generations after you experience greater self-acceptance and inner peace. To understand and process your own fear and rage. To choose the extraordinarily long hard road of introspection and analysis so that you might live authentically and compassionately and so that all children might have better lives.

You have so much Intellect.

To allow your curiosity to run free through the multiple pathways of your effervescent layers. To gobble up as much learning as you can manage. To know that “you think too much” translates into “you breathe too much” and, no, there can never be too much air thinking. To use your capacity to problem solve for healing yourself, your family, and your community while maintaining healthy boundaries and limits and time for the seventeen books piled next to your bed.

You have so much Sensitivity.

To appreciate and trust the intricate beauty and power of the natural world. To maintain your idealism and optimism in spite of the evidence. To let your awarenesses enhance your creativity. To persist in finding your particular art form as a way to express and soothe your sweet soul and the soul of the world.

You have so much Spirit.

To keep looking for Love in spite of the bullies, in spite of your difficulty communicating with the multitudes of slower, simpler thinkers. In spite of your lonely heart. To expand your awareness into the invisible world. To receive the powerful Love and guidance from the Universe. To build your particularly rainforest-y spiritual practice. To allow yourself to become all that you can be; More than you ever thought possible.

More than you ever thought possible.

Dear One. Yes, you. With that dazzlingly intense rainforest mind.

We. Love. You.

________________________________________________

To my bloggEEs: I am so moved by each of you as I read your comments and your emails and as I meet you online and in my practice. I’m so honored to be able to provide you with support. This love letter comes from me with a little help from my own spiritual network of Guides. I have a sense that there are loving Beings in the Universe who are cheering us on. They’re saying thank you, right now, as we speak.

And for a little treat, I want to show you one of my “art forms.” I found an old video of me taking a tango lesson from 2004. As you know, I recommend the Argentine tango for RFMs looking to find each other and connect. Here’s a chance to see what it’s like! Enjoy!

 


Author: Paula Prober

I’m a psychotherapist and consultant in private practice based in Eugene, Oregon. I specialize in international consulting with gifted adults and parents of gifted children. I’ve been a teacher and an adjunct instructor at the University of Oregon and a frequent guest presenter at Oregon State University and Pacific University. I’ve written articles on giftedness for the Eugene Register-Guard, the Psychotherapy Networker, Advanced Development Journal and online for psychotherapy dot net, Rebelle Society, Thrive, Introvert Dear, and Highly Sensitive Refuge. My first book, Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Adults and Youth, is a collection of case studies of gifted clients along with many strategies and resources for gifted adults and teens. My second book, Journey Into Your Rainforest Mind: A Field Guide for Gifted Adults and Teens, Book Lovers, Overthinkers, Geeks, Sensitives, Brainiacs, Intuitives, Procrastinators, and Perfectionists is a collection of my most popular blog posts along with writing exercises for self-exploration and insight.

37 responses to “A Love Letter to You and Your Rainforest Mind”

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  1. Can Gifted Kids Become Ungifted Adults? | Your Rainforest Mind

    […] if you need a little more support, here is a Love Letter I wrote to you in […]


  2. helloyellowbrickroadblog Avatar
    helloyellowbrickroadblog

    This is so beautiful. Thank you💖💖💖


  3. India Spooper Avatar
    India Spooper

    Thank you for this letter Paula, I am a younger rainforest mind (16 years old) and words like yours make growing up as an Empath a little easier.


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      So glad to have you here, India. Love having the younger rainforest minds with us! Thanks for commenting.


  4. cmd1122 Avatar
    cmd1122

    Beautiful and soothing letter written with so much care. I also enjoyed the video of you dancing tango! Thanks as always, Paula.


  5. Grace Kalish Avatar
    Grace Kalish

    How did you know I have 17 books piled next to my bed? 🙂 Thank you for the beautiful words. I am so lucky to have found your blog, your ideas, this concept.


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      Glad to have you here, Grace!


  6.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you. Your words always help me understand why I am the way I am, and why being different is not that bad, even when I sometimes find taht it causes me more trouble than advantages. Thank you for reminding me that I am complex and not problematic, sensitive and not dramatic. Thank you for letting me accept myself.


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      It’s so important that we see who we really are. Self-acceptance is key!


  7.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’m almost in tears. This is such a lovely letter. I would love to hear these things from the people in my life because then I would feel truly understood, accepted, and appreciated. Most people just don’t “get it.” But here you are sending out a message to people who you don’t know, but who you really do know, quite well, and you are saying it’s okay. Thank you for sending out your love into the world!


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      Thank you for receiving it.


  8. Jazzy Jack Avatar
    Jazzy Jack

    Paula, of all the descriptors of my mind I’ve had over the years, “rainforest mind” is the one I love the most.
    It deals with the intensity and difficulties but with a positive spin, and makes me feel as wonderful as a gorgeous forest. Thankyou so much for your work, and for your wonderful presence…especially in dance. It brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for sharing. xo Jazzy Jack


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      Thank you for letting me know, Jazzy Jack!


  9. Diane Kennedy Avatar
    Diane Kennedy

    Love this! Especially Loved the Tango dance! Thank You Paula!


  10. Gail Post, Ph.D. Avatar
    Gail Post, Ph.D.

    A beautiful love letter to all. So powerful. I am sure you will impact many with your writing.


  11. Matthew Ikonen-loskowski Avatar
    Matthew Ikonen-loskowski

    I went through a particularly wicked mind storm since Halloween. Somehow I survived and emerged today, and this is exactly what I need to hear. I’m sobbing. Thank you <3


  12. hksounds Avatar
    hksounds

    There’s much to agree with in your declaration. Where we differ is, that your conclusion is my starting point. But I believe we may still find ourselves on very similar paths. Thank you for sharing.


  13. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    I think it’s an act of courage simply to feel worthy of your words.

    Thank you, Paula.


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      <3


  14. medleymisty Avatar
    medleymisty

    I wanted to share this little thing I wrote a few years ago. It seems relevant to the themes in this post:

    Nothing matters. Not really. The stars and the planets and the galaxies turn and turn and turn, and our planet is a tiny little thing, a small drop of water in the great waterfall, and we are born and we fight and suffer and bleed and die and the universe keeps turning. The water keeps falling.

    There is nothing but love.

    We come up with all sorts of forms into which we project ourselves, gods and theories and systems and stories, and none of them are real but we need them because we cannot comprehend the vast emptiness, the great turning wheel of All That Is. So we people it, we give it personalities and faces and names, and we fashion delusions to get us by, so we can get on with the business of eating and drinking and making copies of ourselves and feeling like we have some importance, some point to our existence. And sometimes those delusions lead us to fight and to hate and to kill and to cause great suffering, but the universe keeps turning.

    If you wipe away all the delusions, all the fevered imaginings of humans trying to explain the vast nothingness to themselves, all the ego and the self-righteousness and the ignorance, what you will find when you look that great abyss straight in the eye is…

    Love.

    A love that does not need anything other than itself. It does not need a form and a name and a face. It does not need reasons to be moral, to be good. It does not need a system of morality, a set of shoulds and shoulds not. It does not judge or want or need or hurt.

    It is there, and it is itself, and it flows over everyone and everything. It touches them all, the preacher and the terrorist and the crooked politician and the soldier and the drug dealer and the banker and the car salesman and the janitor and the murderer and the saint and the starving child, and before it they are all equal, all worthy of being touched.

    It knows that humans are stumbling in the dark, that they do not know what they do, that they are children cowering before the great unknowingness, too scared to stand before the vast turning dark and to see their utter insignificance and their infinite worth, that they are too scared and alone to come out of the shadows and to look upon the bright and shining stars. It knows that its light is too painful for their dark-accustomed eyes to bear. And it loves them. It loves them.

    The universe turns and turns, and we do not matter. But we get to be here, to be part of the great turning, for a few minutes. And if you are willing to leave the comfort of the shadows and to stare unblinking into the abyss, to see that you are a speck of dust in an infinite universe and that you are the universe, that you are not terribly special but you are everyone and everything, that there are no walls and no barriers and no differences and you are the preacher and you are the terrorist and you are the crooked politician and you are the soldier and you are the drug dealer and you are the banker and you are the car salesman and you are the janitor and you are the murderer and you are the saint and you are the starving child…

    Then the dark falls aways from your eyes and you see the light and the love touching everyone, and it is in you and it is you, and there is no more striving, no more ego, no more fear, no more hate, and no more forms and no more fantasies and no more systems. There is only love, and everything else is obliterated by its light, and you cannot hate and fear and kill and harm anymore, because you know now that you are doing it to yourself.

    You are doing it to yourself.


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      This is not a “little thing,” medleymisty. This is breathtaking. Thank you.


    2. radiolizner Avatar
      radiolizner

      Thank you for sharing. I will be reading this again, and again. Lovely.


  15. ktcallista Avatar
    ktcallista

    It has been such a difficult week, I needed this in so many ways.


  16. Camille Carroll Avatar
    Camille Carroll

    Wow Paula, just what I needed to read this morning. What a treasure you are.

    Love Camille x (from Canberra, Australia)

    Sent from my iPhone

    >


  17. Deb Avatar
    Deb

    Thank you so much Paula. On a day when it all seems to much to bear, you send the exact words I need to hear at the exact moment.


  18. tracylomax Avatar
    tracylomax

    Great timing, Paula and hearty thanks! Oh my goodness, I needed to hear this today and rainforest-y tears roll down my face as well —with gratitude and appreciation for you and the guides cheering us all on!


  19. artyplantsman Avatar
    artyplantsman

    Thank you Paula. For the gift of your insight. Much love back to you.


  20. Carol Avatar
    Carol

    Tears today as I read this – thank you!! Needing some love and understanding today. I am in the process of clearing my chakras, and to clear all of this exposes me to magnificence, but also drops those walls I put in place many, many years ago. So it is an act of courage to clear all of this so that I may be even more open and sensitive and receptive…..receptive to great energies, receptive to genuine protection (in a better way than what I had been doing ; ), and a life that becomes more wonderful than I ever thought possible! One day at a time……Love to you, and gratitude for your posts : )


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      Yes, it can be scary to open to your magnificence. But necessary. We need you.


      1. Carol Avatar
        Carol

        Thank you, Paula!


  21. EwaB Avatar
    EwaB

    thank you, I needed to hear this today. this week, this month, this year, unfortunatly this decade. Thank you so much.


  22. Single Moeder Avatar
    Single Moeder

    wow. that is such a great love letter! love it is, I think it is all about love, creation and imagination. Can never have enough of all of that. I am just so grateful that the online world is there, and that I found your blog – still surprised you are not followed by millions yet!


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      Not millions….there may not be that many rainforest minds out there!!


      1. Single Moeder Avatar
        Single Moeder

        Millions it should be!


        1. Paula Prober Avatar
          Paula Prober

          Thank you, Single Moeder.


  23. Maria Avatar
    Maria

    Do you know me personally? It really seems that way when I read this post. Thank you. I guess that means I really DO have a rainforest mind….!😍 p.s. We love you back!


    1. Paula Prober Avatar
      Paula Prober

      Yep. You have a rainforest mind! 🙂

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