I am neither gifted, nor hyper-sensitive, nor multi-potential.
Gifted, hyper-sensitive, hypersensitive, multi-potential, high-potential, enlightened beings, indigo children, what else do I know... I keep seeing articles scrolling in my news feed on these new kind of labels. More is written than I can actually read.
[This is a mood note and not an analysis of atypical profiles. This is a response to dubious articles and tests allowing rapid self-diagnosis on the internet. I'm addressing an issue here that has raised many questions and concerns for me.]
Labels, the ones that create camps.
At the risk of throwing a paving stone in the pond, of bringing an elephant into a porcelain house, I would like to come back to these reducing denominations which compare us, oppose us, differentiate us, inevitably creating - in spite of us - two camps: those which are, and those which are not.
Yet, two questions keep pounding my brain and vibrating in my body: Are all these categories really me? How can I help others become what they are if I show them what they are not?
I never liked labels.
The more I earn in a year, the more they blind me. I find them simplistic, limiting, sometimes even degrading, so much so that they do not express in terms of authenticity, accuracy and depth what I am.
I could say "I sing in the shower, but I'm not a singer. I dance in my living room, yet I'm not a dancer. I participate in shaman circles, yet I'm not a shaman. I meditate, yet I'm not a yogi." I'm none of that, but I'm all of that, too.
I think the moment when this whole thing really annoyed me the most,
It is this strange moment when I recognized myself in all the articles that speak about multi-potential, hyper-sensitive, gifted people, who describe them as different, with intellectual and emotional capacities above average, especially thanks to their ability to fully live their emotions and intuition, to develop their relationship, their connection to themselves and to others. They see the world differently and would therefore be a kind of individuals, sometimes almost providential, present to bring different solutions to the future.
You are described as having the following characteristics:"empathetic and kind, resilient, passionate, creative, creative, multitasking, in search of truth, with a concern for justice, cerebral hyperactivity, emotional oscillations".
I spare you the articles that use these labels as a merry business where words like "super-powers" appear...
We're not gonna lie to each other, who wouldn't want to look like that description?
When you see an article entitled "These gifted adults...", who doesn't want to be part of it? And oddly enough, half of my Facebook, not to mention the thousands of likes and comments that flood in, identifies with all these articles.
I could have said to myself "It's normal, we surround ourselves with people who look like us", but I told myself that they too had to live with the same observation: the friends of our friends, ourselves, our entourage, many of them recognize themselves in these descriptions. I could have stopped there, be happy to be different and analyzed in this way, congratulate my friends for being the same, be proud to be surrounded by such extraordinary people...
Until I ask myself the following questions: Is it possible that we are all defined by these criteria? Is it possible that these words are part of our common humanity, part of what makes us human beings?
Have we forgotten our abilities?
You have no idea how many parents I met who told me that their children are special, different, more sensitive and intelligent than the average. To the point where it appealed to me... Are we dealing with a more advanced generation? Or is it that with the passing years, education, thought patterns, frameworks, obligations, authority, authority, punishments, reprimands, violence; what the world, society, parents expect from children; wouldn't we hurt them on what they really are when they come into the world?