Everyone is born sensitive. Like the seed in the waking life of Winter meeting Spring, an innocent Child opens to the wonders of the sensory world, longing to do what the Mother does; longing to speak, stand up, and touch the Life that it sees, hears, senses, or feels. What the Child perceives around them, live as quiet questions in their soul, until a time when it is ready to learn something new or something more - about itself and the world. We may want to ask ourselves, what is it that lives in the Child and in the tiny sprouting seedling, that causes it to long for growth, for Life? Could it be that this longing is coming from the same place an inspiration; an impulse towards something?
Similarly, we may ask ourselves, what is it in the plant that knows to grow upright creating a stem? What is it in the plant that inspired it to grow a leaf after leaf after leaf, until it has enveloped itself in green? What is it that inspires the plant to know it is time to flower? What is it in the flowering plant that knows it is time to let go and return itself to the earth?
The seasons of the year, invite us to recognise the growing self within, and the dying self within. When we are out of rhythm with the changing markers of the seasons, a number of sensitivities may arise inviting us to look at what needs to be supported to regain balance.
Individuals may find it helpful to explore their sensitivities in many ways, such as art-making, movement, massage, time in nature, taking a long drive, or hike, or a swim, or go on holiday retreat. All these activities can indeed help. However, in time we may wonder why things have changed, that we are drawn to self-care more than before; to query our various forms of identity more than before; to challenge ourselves and each other more than before..
In these questions, of wondering about Life and our relationships, sensitivities may arise.
How can we find ways to come into rhythm with ourselves in a way that is not singularly earthbound nor singularly skyward, but travels - to include our core self?
How can we experience ways that can support our coming into rhythm inside and outside?
How do we grow to value our sensitivities and work with them so that we can find wellbeing and peace to meet each other in a more conscious way?
It can be difficult to manage our increasing sensitivities in a way that supports us to be with each other in social community, and know when to be with ourselves for individual self-reflection.
Rather than try to suppress the sensitivities that may arise as thoughts and feelings and sensations, can we feel able to ask deeper questions, so that new meaning can be invited, that offer opportunities for change?
We may look around and find people who are searching for different names and diagnoses for their fluctuations, which can be most helpful in understanding We need to know what is happening and what we are moving through.
In my work, I meet a wide variety of child and adult needs; children who may be temporarily insensitive to the human beings around them, and prefer to stay with a screen. It can take a long time to bring them back to meaningful life and connection. I meet mothers who are struggling with their sensitivities during pregnancy and so Eurythmy is offered to strengthen their centre so that the child’s unfolding can happen more smoothly. I have also met young people who feel there is no other way than to self-soothe with numbing the thoughts and feelings by intaking various substances. Again, Anthroposophical Arts and Eurythmy for Highly Sensitive People can offer a way to steadily know ones self so that another way can be found to self-regulate.
The biggest challenge I find In our time, is the way to know The Good. The possibility to trespass may be tempting as the Individual part of the human being gains ground and strength; new ideas seem to come from nowhere that we may presume are our own entirely. So, I can guide clients to discern the changes in themselves through Steiner’s six basic exercises for balance and clarity.
Finding our way to ebb and flow with the inner and outer senses is the work of this time, that is affecting our shared atmosphere, inspiring a different way of meeting Life.
By perceiving and striving to build bridges between the two opposites of Life, (between which we all move and develop), one can find a new sense of self as a human being becoming, in a direct, free, and experiential way. The fruits of the work come through, by discerning and befriending the Higher “I” who becomes increasingly clearer as we strive to open and take an interest in the other; the opposite, and begin to weave between Thinking, and Willing, through Feeling.
If the Higher “I” does not participate in the striving to make sense of inner and outer changes, it is not being taken hold of and related with. Here we may fall into egoism, where we might expect things to go ‘my way’.
Utilising an arts-based and nature-based approach through colour, line, shape, form, texture, gesture, mood, and sound, we may perceive a bridge that gifts an authentic sense of individual and social transformation.
There is a pathway towards peace and unity - through Sensitivity to our inner and outer spaces.
If you would like some support with taking hold of your sensitivity, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.
Nisha
Artwork (my own)
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