On giftedness

2024-11-02 08:00

In her book The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine N. Aron offers some guidelines for "reparenting" your gifted self. I see a lot of bloggers who in my eyes are incredibly gifted in their own ways. Occasionally a post will appear about their mental health struggles, and more often "imposter syndrome" (there's a tension here between points 3 and 4 below), so I'd like to drop Elaine's list here that may resonate for others.

Reparenting Your "Gifted" Self

1. Appreciate yourself for being, not doing.
2. Praise yourself for taking risks and learning something new rather than for your successes; it will help you cope with failure.
3. Try not to constantly compare yourself to others; it invites excessive competition.
4. Give yourself opportunities to interact with other gifted people.
5. Do not overschedule yourself. Allow time to think, to daydream.
6. Keep your expectations realistic.
7. Do not hide your abilities.
8. Be your own advocate. Support your right to be yourself.
9. Accept it when you have narrow interests. Or broad ones.