Emotional intensity is commonly associated with emotional sensitivity. I've experienced it for a long time, and have always felt guilty about it. Partly, because, i didn't understand it and did not have the tools to manage it.
There's a tendency for our culture to see emotional intensity/sensitivity as a negative, a weakness, something bad, and unproductive. It's seen as a trait which requires not management, but social rejection. This, i think, is quite unfortunate, because there's great benefits and wisdom in the ability to be emotionally sensitive.
I've been researching this subject for a long time, and one of the sites i've come across have listed a number of characteristics of emotionally intense individuals. Now, the site describes the link between emotional intensity and giftedness, but whether or not you consider yourself or are considered gifted, how do you relate to the descriptions below?
Do you experience any or all of the following characteristics? How did it affect you when you were young, and/or as you've gotten older? How did you handle or learn to manage those characteristics?
There's a tendency for our culture to see emotional intensity/sensitivity as a negative, a weakness, something bad, and unproductive. It's seen as a trait which requires not management, but social rejection. This, i think, is quite unfortunate, because there's great benefits and wisdom in the ability to be emotionally sensitive.
I've been researching this subject for a long time, and one of the sites i've come across have listed a number of characteristics of emotionally intense individuals. Now, the site describes the link between emotional intensity and giftedness, but whether or not you consider yourself or are considered gifted, how do you relate to the descriptions below?
Do you experience any or all of the following characteristics? How did it affect you when you were young, and/or as you've gotten older? How did you handle or learn to manage those characteristics?
http://giftedservices.com.au/StartingPoints/EmotionalIntensity.htmlEmotional Intensity and Sensitivity
GIFTEDNESS has an emotional as well as intellectual component. Intellectual complexity goes hand in hand with emotional depth. So gifted people not only think differently from other people they also feel differently. Emotional intensity in gifted people is not a matter of feeling more than other people, it is a different way of experiencing the world: vivid, absorbing, penetrating, encompassing, complex, commanding... ...
...a way of being quiveringly alive.
Emotional Intensity
Emotional intensity is positively correlated with intelligence and so the higher the intellectual level, the more emotionally intense a gifted person will be.
Emotional intensity is expressed by the gifted through a wide range of feelings, attachments. compassion, heightened sense of responsibility and scrupulous self-examination.
While these are normal for gifted people and appear very early in gifted children, they are often mistaken for emotional immaturity rather than as evidence of a rich inner life.
Characteristics
The characteristics of gifted emotional intensity include…
- Extremes of emotion
- Complex emotions
- Intense passionate feelings
- Fears and anxieties
- Feelings of guilt
- Concerns with death
- Depressive moods
- Identification with others' feelings
- Heightened awareness of injustice and hypocrisy
- High level of emotional energy
- Heightened sensitivity to the environment; eg light, noise, movement
- A sense of identification with people, animals, nature, and the universe
- High levels of empathy
- Keen self-awareness
- Vulnerablity to social rejection
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