Archives: On Sensitivity

Even the word sensitive carries with it such mixed connotations. Connections to stories of too much, crazy, fragile. I know these well. But what if there is another side to this. What if the awareness inherent in feeling so deeply held a power running just as deep.

I remember one of my teachers speaking during a training I was in once about how awareness isn’t always comfortable. This made so much sense to me. Awareness isn’t selective; it means awareness of the totality of what may be before us or within us. We are so often striving for more of it, perhaps at times forgetting to bring along the compassion for what it will be like to see, hear, know, and feel more. What could be possible if we saw our sensitivity as just another aspect of us? That is only seen as fragile, too much, too easily breakable when we look through a lens that is as out of balance as this limited, one sided view. That when tended to and honoured, holds great gifts, great power. Not a power over but a rooted one. That when known well, holds a much bigger, deeper, wider meaning than the stories that have been spun around it.