Shirley Mansonās brilliantly, poignantly, and beautifully raw post. If you are highly sensitive, an empath, a #multipotentialite, have a #rainforestmind, are #twiceexceptional or simply just FEEL your world, please take time to read what she has to say. I needed not only to hear such a perspective (once again) for myself, but also for others with whom I am providing support. #comingalongside #wearenotaloneonthisjourney #Repost @garbage ć»ć»ć» I donāt know what to tell you. I was such a sullen teenage girl. Drowning always in āfeelings ā. I was always accused of being ātoo sensitive ā too much, too this - too that. I didnāt know back then there existed ways to articulate feelings of frustration and rage so instead I became a surreptitious cutter. Hurting myself made me feel better. There was change. There was result. Sometime later in life, when I started to write , I began to learn how to better express myself. The next thing I learned was that it wasnāt me who was too sensitive. It was others who in fact were too INSENSITIVE. It was the world at large that was hard, uncaring and afraid - mostly of feeling anything at all. There is an invested desire in ignoring reality and global suffering to maintain the status quo. The world didnāt and still doesnāt want to look at climate change , racism ,sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, trans folk, disabled folk, world hunger, homelessness , domestic and sexual violence, animal rights etc for that would require their own comfort to be challenged, shaken and disturbed which in turn demands effort and change. To ignore what is happening in the world as though nothing dangerous or hateful is going on is for so many people currently unaffected by threats or hate, the safer and preferred response. Now I am 55 I am grateful that I can see and that I can feel. I am grateful that I am able to experience empathy and sympathy. I am thrilled I possess an imagination and am able to nurture a capacity to love. I want to see change in my lifetime. I want a better life for those who donāt have an easy one. And I want in doing so to acknowledge that I am no longer such a sullen girl. It wasnāt me all along then- it was THEM. https://www.instagram.com/p/CXHZfUcPfcE4W0Mqz75Pr_-oj1XNFCvLI6gnv00/?utm_medium=tumblr