I am so glad you asked.
Here is why. In no particular order. Not all of the list will apply to you, of course, but if a lot of it does, you may just have to admit once and for all that you have a rainforest (gifted!) mind-heart-soul-spirit-body:
- You were told you were so smart from a very early age and that you needed to reach your great potential. This felt good in some ways but mostly like too much pressure.You still feel that pressure.
- No one explained to you what being gifted meant and you are still wondering. In fact, you do not really think it applies to you. You know people who are so much smarter and more accomplished.
- You were not identified in school as gifted because you did not fit the myth that says all gifted kids get good grades, excel in math and science, and color inside the lines.
- You were identified in school as gifted and did well in academics but no one explained what it meant and you were bullied because of it.
- You don’t understand why you are still procrastinating now that you are no longer in school.
- Being highly sensitive to textures, images, sounds, smells, tastes, colors, other’s emotions, medications, justice issues, and expectations, does not feel smart, but rather it feels like you are a high maintenance, complaining, ungrateful weirdo.
- Your fear of failure has you paralyzed a lot. You tell yourself you learn more from failures than successes but that doesn’t seem to help.
- Intellectual stimulation is hard to find. It is one of your basic needs.
- Your limited ability to execute the exquisite visions in your head has you confused and frustrated.
- Your intuition is a little scary and your empathy feels overwhelming a lot of the time.
- The parental advice you received of “just do your best” still has you tied up in knots. Always doing your best is an impossible expectation when you are gifted. This is not understood by, well, anyone.
- You are a highly successful CEO of a powerful organization, you have won countless awards, and you still feel inadequate.
- People are attracted to you because of your sensitivity and empathy but they rarely are able to reciprocate. It is hard to find friends or partners who can keep up with you. You are often lonely.
- Having traveled many varied career paths, you have suspected you are mediocre at many things but expert at nothing.
- You have wondered for years how people can be so slow.
- You are driven to find ways to create a more peaceful, equitable world. You are even thinking about going back to school for yet another degree to find solutions to the climate crisis, racism, and poverty.
- You have been careful all these years to hide how much you actually know and how much you love to learn, so much so that you doubt whether you were ever gifted at all.
- Your parents (and coworkers) think you are lazy because you take so long to finish mundane tasks but they don’t notice that you are adept at all the complicated stuff.
- You have been in therapy for years working through serious trauma in your family of origin. If you were really gifted, would healing take this long? And if you were really smart, why didn’t you save your parents, your siblings, your cousins, your neighbors, and your neighbor’s dog from all that suffering?
- You have a hard time determining if you are an overthinker, like they say you are, or if you are just a deep, analytical, divergent thinker who is extremely curious about, oh, everything. You would like to tell them that being an overthinker is better than being an underthinker.
Have I convinced you that we need a blog (this blog!) for super smart, sensitive, creative, and empathetic people? And, of course, all folks ought to have a blog written especially for them. Right? We all need to feel understood, seen, and loved.
And yet, my dearest rainforesters. This one is for you.
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To my bloggEEs: What do you think? Which of these on the list resonate with you? Tell us about the challenges and joys you experience because of your rainforest mind. Thank you, as always, for being here. And, just a reminder, the Shift Network Summit on sensitivity, empathy and intuition starts November 15, 2021. I am speaking that first day! Won’t you join me? (If you find out about it after the 15th, you can still access it and watch or buy the package.)
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