Reclaiming The Serious

Photo by Ansie Potgieter on Unsplash

Do you tend to be more serious than other people? Does it ever make you feel like you are out on a limb all by yourself?

I know that I am much more serious than most other people around me and that I tend to feel alone with it.

Are HSPs More Serious Than Other People?

In some ways, it seems to me that HSPs are more serious than non-HSPs.

Our sensitivity causes us to notice nuances and disconnection. We notice when pain is created in us and the people around us. We notice the little failures of attention that can add up to big-time failures and alienation.

Our nervous systems cause us to be aware whether we want to be or not. Our awareness can make us uncomfortable and others as well. Awareness is not always welcome.

HSP Awareness And The Culture Of Positivity

HSP awareness and our need to honor our authentic perception can make social relationships difficult. It is particularly difficult in a cultural structure of positivity – the thinking style of progress and forward movement.

Positivity only accepts the “yes” answer. It only wants to hear how something can be done. It doesn’t tolerate slowness and obstacles. Positivity is narrowly focused on a specific result.

HSPs who notice flaws in an objective or how it is being pursued are unwelcome in “positive” environments.

There is nothing wrong with thinking positively. The problem with positivity is that it is often divorced from reality. As a cultural model, positivity totally disregards the “collateral damage” caused by its philosophy: human health issues, environmental degradation, social issues, and costs.

HSPs do not ignore the consequences of positivity. We cannot. We can feel it; there is no escape.

The Origins Of The Positivity Idea

Positivism is a philosophy that applies math and science to all spheres of life. It has been an important way of thinking used to help us meet our material needs. The amazing accomplishments in creating new textiles and inventions such as prosthetics are a result of the positivity drive. However, it is mostly a left-brained view of the world and life which is why it often feels “off” to highly sensitive people whose energetic sensibilities see other perspectives.

Positivism has had far reaching consequences because it uses science and mathematics as the primary sources of information. Therefore, any information that comes from another source lacks standing in a culture of positivism. All the “soft” sources of knowledge like intuition, deep processing, energy awareness, holistic thinking have been devalued in our current positivity culture.

The Fatal Flaw Of Positivism

Everything has limits. All sources of information included.

Scientific reductionism means that everything can be known by reducing something to its component parts. Science assumes that it can know everything by dissecting it and studying it. Unfortunately, this belief is a partial truth. Science can certainly provide us with a lot of information. However, it misses something critically important. The world and people are not just static objects. People, the world, and life are dynamic and organic. They are ever changing and evolving. How do you reduce the dynamic nature of life to a flow chart or a measurement?

All sources of information have limits. It is a little like the old story of blindfolded people touching an elephant and each identified what they were feeling as something different.

How The Serious Came To Be Abdicated

Positivism defines what matters in very narrow terms. It is a materialistic philosophy. However even material is not static. Everything grows and declines, is born and dies, changes and transforms. Science does not understand the energetic nature of all life.

HSPs are very attuned to the energetic universe. Energy is information, it is reality, it is our source and our work.

Science has devalued the energetic systems of life:

• if you grieve a serious loss more than two weeks, you now have a medicatable condition
• if you are hurt by someone hostile actions or words, you have a problem, but it does not recognize energetic harm as a valid concern
• sleep is something you do when you are dead. It does not really understand cycles of activity and rest.
• nature is no longer our home, it is a source of raw materials for creating products. Nature exists to be conquered. (How’s that working?)

Reclaiming The Serious

Something interesting is happening in the world right now.

All of the serious issues that have been denied for so long are finding their voice again:

• nature and the environment
• spirituality
• marginalized people
• natural healing
• local economies
• animal rights
• human rights

There is increasing joy as people start to reclaim what’s important over what is economic and expedient. We have been sacrificing our well being for convenience. Convenience is not a serious life concern. It is nice but hardly important as a value.

Important and serious values are showing their face. People are taking up the serious in their lives and life is starting to have meaning and value again.

How refreshing!