Blessings for the Sensitive

I am sensitive and, therefore, may always be touched by a certain anxiousness of being. You may or may not relate. Double this anxiousness if combined with creativity. However, the creative-sensitive person is blessed, especially, by the keenest appreciation of anxiety, the full life, for not all anxiety is bad. It depends on our perspective.

We associate anxiety with fear, mostly, and not with an innate sense of curiosity. Yes, the anxious can ameliorate some of their tension by exploring their curiosity. The world may seem larger or more intricate. Within the wealth of stimuli rests copious opportunity for exploration, if allowances for freedom can be arranged.

The Positive Side Of Sensitiveness

Sensitive people, and I say this by self-admission, tend to feel more and may be somewhat imprisoned to feeling. That’s how it feels; to be somewhat trapped. We’re not so trapped, however, but to feel is our default. We go there in a flash.

But what’s stated above is a great advantage for sensitive people. They are more in touch, to the point of being too in-touch, with their world than the insensitive are.

Whilst the sensitive person might make more out of a given social dynamic than what’s required or even there, they’re more likely to listen to people; to engage in others’ feelings; to notice what might not otherwise be discerned. This may not feel like a blessing to the one personally requited of their sensitivity, but it’s a feature of our very humanity we come to rely on and need. The world needs sensitive people.

The sensitive-creative—and all sensitive people may have a significant creative side—make, possibly, for the best artists; for ‘art’, in its myriad forms, liberates and soothes, generates feeling, and brings us alive. Perhaps we note the subversive aggression—the angry, grotesque artist, temperamental in their expression—within us and we’re angry that such indifference within our personalities exists. We may loath the fact that sensitivity clings so dearly. But this makes us passionate, enduring, capable, driven; committed.

There are a great many other positive sides regarding sensitivity that are beyond our time here.

Making The Best Of Ordinary Anxiousness

The flipside to the expanse of feeling is the experience of an underpinning anxiousness that drives our momentary sense of existence. We secretly hope for times where such anxiousness might dissipate; where we might be freed, even momentarily.

The flipside to the flipside, a great paradox, is enjoying any sense of freedom that can be reclaimed in any of those anxious moments—they do exist, those spaces for freedom. We create them. Behaviourally, we breathe. Cognitively, we imagine something different, something pleasant, something calming. Emotionally, we allow ourselves freedom for feeling. Spiritually, we enjoy God’s presence.

We expand our horizon. We’re thankful we can feel; that we can’t help feeling. How horrible it would be to be numbed. We appreciate the courage it takes to live our lives, with such alacrity for feeling.

The sensitive have the capacity for feeling, and beyond its disadvantages, there’s aptitude for creativity and burgeoning life beyond anxiousness. Abundance may certainly be closer to the sensitive than the insensitive. Such a sensitive life requires courage, and the sensitive person should celebrate their courage every day.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.