This post is excerpted from my book Indigo, in the Know, which will be published in early 2016.
Expression of the Collective
Being a highly sensitive soul can be deeply challenging, but I'm going to explain to you why this is a positive aspect of who you are regarding the evolution of our world.
As a sensitive soul, I was always seeking. When I had matured some, and knew that my emotional history was dictating where I was in my life, I became a neutral observer of my childhood and adolescence. I saw the deep feelings of disconnect, not belonging and frustration that I was the "cause" of but, also had a deep connection to something beyond me that I could not describe. I felt everyone's emotions around me in such a way that I could not separate others' feelings from my own. As a child and teenager, I was feeling the world in a way I did not have language for.
You can imagine the confusion of not knowing where I ended and where someone else began. It was like being an emotional sponge that never gets rung out. After taking on the collective emotions of people, people with whom I interacted (family, friends--even strangers), I felt a need for release. Given that I was young and dependent on my parents and teachers for their love and approval, I felt desperate, combustible and misunderstood. I would take on the world and have nowhere to go with it, no way to release it and no way to express it with words. So what did I do? I acted out and created an explosion, a release. Many times this was disruptive, but part of my unconscious intention was to get help, get understanding and visually express how deeply disturbing this experience was.
Children and teens in this same state are often misunderstood. Our actions seem out of control and our behavior often makes no sense. This is because we feel different than you, as we experience a deeper and broader level of emotion. We are expressing the unconscious needs of our world--the collective unconscious.
Our world is divided by race, religion, and socioeconomic status. This division can be changed, but it requires a fierce, yet peaceful, shift. As highly sensitive souls we are coming forward in abundance because of the need for a shift, and we MUST feel all we feel. We came into this life exactly as we are so that we could bring a big awareness to the places in our world that are broken and need healing.
My personal story started in the school system. I was seven years old and my mother was a schoolteacher. I was not performing on tests in a way that reflected my intelligence. My mother took me to a psychiatrist for an I.Q. test to see if I was having intellectual challenges; I was not.
Like most children who display differences in behavior and learning, my I.Q. was nearly at genius level. Because of this incongruence, I was sent home with the label of ADHD and a prescription for Ritalin that I was to take twice a day, every day. This was (and often still is) used to get kids to focus and follow the ways of the well-established educational system.
The problem was, it didn't work. It did, however, create internal stress, identity issues and global incubation. I was expressing a need for change in the school system, like millions of other children and teens diagnosed with ADHD. At the time the educational system only honored one way of learning, one way of testing and one way to gauge intelligence. There was only one form of intelligence being celebrated or even recognized.
A diagnosis is too simple an answer to a complicated system, as there are many factors involved: How can an ADD/ADHD diagnosis help with an unsettled emotional state? How about spiritual intuition? A deep understanding of people that seems to be beyond a child's years? Sure,
we can keep diagnosing and prescribing, but what is that doing? How is that getting to the core and essence of the complexities of these children?
Many people whom I have coached and interviewed state that when they were diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, they felt discarded. We suffer most when our truth is being compromised, and have a natural instinct about when something is "off."
Behavioral Issues or System Issues?
That which is missing from our educational system, and in my opinion, the void of a global spiritual perspective today, is actually the root cause of the majority of the behavioral problems, which we are seeing today in the classroom and at home. As such, the teachers and parents today lack a "universal spiritual picture." That is not our fault; it is simply not how we were raised and not how things have been set up. What I mean by a universal spiritual picture is the understanding of a deeper meaning and purpose of life, self and world. These kids have come into this life with exactly that purpose: to bring a more loving way to the surface and infuse it in everything we do. We do this by being the way we are--being authentic. You can see how this forces people into more of an unconditional love.
Abstract Thinkers and Complex Beings
We have felt different, alone and misplaced, but now it is our time to come into our own and step into our authority. We have a depth of feeling and thinking that differs from those around us. We are in touch with others and ourselves and know a deeper truth sense and way of being, and we are following it. We have a different way in which we naturally perceive the world as we see through the eyes of spirit.
Rather than ADHD, I call these kids Indigo children, system busters or awakened and they are the new paradigm, frontrunners of change and transformation, and will have impact by first becoming self-aware, then becoming what we know.
Through my journey of self-awakening and realization, I have come to know that no one can heal me, except myself. But first there were years of doubt, labeling, emotional neglect and perfectionist ideals to work through and clear. Once I got to the place of trusting and believing in
my own wisdom, I was no longer just a seer, but a doer, and now serve others as they find their way.
Emotional healing is the first step. Allowing ourselves to feel, we learn to fill a lack of self-love and connect with our own spirituality. We can then see that it is no one's fault; if our parents had emotional structure and guidance, they would have given it to us.
The system is flawed, the world is hurting and we can be the example of consciousness rather than the expression of the unconscious.
It is time for a more authentic society where we empower our feelings and each other.
"Indigo children have a natural remembrance of Spiritual Law. We push against that which blocks our heart, binds our mind and numbs our knowing of who we are as divine and right on time." ~ Candace van Dell