While the idea of being considered a ‘highly sensitive person’ irks me to no end, the book describing such a person resonated strongly with me, and I’m not averse to acknowledging many of the traits of an ‘HSP’. Dr. Elaine N. Aron wrote about HSPs in ‘The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You’ and it’s an interesting read for anyone who has felt socially anxious or inhibited. It explained quite a bit of confusing episodes in my childhood and past, while illuminating ways to combat such issues in the present. Dr. Aron also makes a compelling argument for the importance of such HSPs in the world, especially today. When all seems to be falling apart around us, this may be a good time to consider the quieter and more introspective ways some of us navigate through life.
“I like the way that anthropologists speak of ritual leadership and ritual space. Ritual leaders create for others those experiences which can only take place within a ritual, sacred, or transitional space, set aside from the mundane world. Experiences in this sort of space are transformative and give meaning. Without them life becomes drab and empty. The ritual leader marks off and protects the space, prepares others to enter it, guides them while there, and helps them return to society with the right meaning from the experience. Traditionally, these were often initiation experiences marking life’s great transition – into adulthood, marriage, parenthood, elderhood, and death. Others were meant to heal, to bring a vision or revelation that gave direction, or to move one into closer harmony with the divine.
Today sacred spaces are quickly made mundane. They require great privacy and care if they are to survive. They are as likely to be created in the offices of certain psychotherapists as in churches, as likely to occur in a gathering of men or women dissatisfied with their religion as in a community practicing its traditions, as likely to be signaled by a slight change in topic or tone in a conversation as by the donning of shamanic costume and the outline of a ceremonial circle. The boundaries of sacred space today are always shifting, symbolic, and rarely visible.” ~ Dr. Elaine N. Aron, ‘The Highly Sensitive Person’
