Rudolph – Another Famous H.S.E.C.G.

Highly Sensitive, Empathic & Creatively Gifted (HSECG) children comprise over 20% of our population. They are born with a nervous system that is highly aware and quick to react to their environment. These children are astutely responsive to their surroundings, whether it is the lighting, being overstimulated by technology and too much screen time, sounds, smells and feeling the overall mood of the people around them. From a young age, the HSECG Child knows they are different from other children due to their sharpened sense of awareness, highly empathic nature, often gifted intellectually and soaring creatively. Emotionally HSECG's demonstrate genuine compassion at very early ages.

Due to the intrinsic gift of compassion and empathy towards others, HSECG's are easy targets for other children to tease and bully. In order to gain confidence and a strong sense of self- worth, children need to know that their parents value their gift of being highly sensitive. Parents need to know there is nothing WRONG with their HSECG child. As with any gifted child, they just need a little time and parental patience and support to grow into these extraordinary skills. As an HSECG baby and toddler, experiencing such an aptitude of high sensitivity is overwhelming until they are taught a few simple, practical tools to maintain emotional balance and learn to establish clear emotional and energetic boundaries.

As an HSECG child, I naively assumed everyone felt the same degree of empathic compassion and intuitive 'knowing' concerning people's emotions within their environment. An HSECG baby/child/teen/adult literally absorbs all of the feelings, stress and emotions of those around them. Their empathic sensitivities allow them to KNOW when someone is withholding truth, feeling anger, depression, fear, anxiety and/or experiencing the wide array of adult emotional issues. Hanging a gentle reminder above your baby's nursery door to 'Please Check Emotions and Stress Levels Before Entering' and taking a few cleansing breaths serves as a win/win for you and your child. To them, feeling adult emotions and stress is literally like acid rock music being blasted 24 hrs, a day, 7 days a week into their already hypervigilant nervous system.

The good news for parents is that HSECG children as young as 18 months to 2 years of age can successfully embrace empowering self-management tools to rebalance themselves. For parents of HSECG baby's there are a multitude of simple, straightforward and practical strategies to relieve overstimulation.

Throughout history, we know that each generation is more highly evolved than the previous one. Each child is also born with a unique combination of innate talents, gifts, values and motivations. Some people are born with a propensity towards science and engineering, some are born with an inclination to work with their hands, some are imbued with musical, art and theatrical talents' and others are born with a highly evolved spiritual predisposition to model and teach unconditional love through acts of compassion, forgiveness and acceptance. More and more babies are being born with this higher evolutionary calling.

You might think &nedash; well that sounds very noble, unrealistic or at best a little bit airy fairy - but you would be mistaken. Most times the HSECG path is not one for the faint of heart. During our lifetime, we've been presented with challenges that most people consider traumatic ' and indeed they were at the time. As an HSECG, we are intrinsically hardwired to harmonize/rebalance everything in our environment. We are innately driven and feel a responsibility to embrace the higher truth of our challenges, gather the wisdom so we can then share that wisdom with others. That's the life/soul purpose of not only an HSECG but of everyone–first doing the inner work of self-love so you can then mirror and radiate unconditional compassion, forgiveness and acceptance to your fellow man. This path is what is referred to as the Christ Consciousness. Up until now it took many lifetimes to get there. But that's all changing now.

As a spiritual educator and HSECG adult from the Baby Boomer Generation, I understood that I must do the inner work in order to get to the other side of a challenge/trauma. I knew I must first be able to experience self-compassion, self-forgiveness, self-acceptance and love for myself before I could mirror those same values to others. Generally speaking, think about how each new generation possesses differing innate gifts, values, motivations, mindsets and purpose. Traditionalists, (1900-1945) Baby Boomers, (1946-1964) Generation X, (1965-1976) Generation Y (Millennials) (1977-1997) and currently Generation Z (after 1998) are driven by a differing modus operandi for living their best life.

As a young HSECG child growing up in the 1950's, I remember innocently telling a group of neighborhood friends about the beautiful, angelic looking beings that were always around me – especially watching over me at night. I remember their incredulous looks as each one began laughing and calling me names like weirdo and psycho. It was one of those life-defining moments. I remember experiencing waves of shame, guilt and feeling very alone. I never mentioned anything like it again to anyone'until my late 30's.

I was living in Lima Peru, when I was awakened with an inner knowing. I sat straight up in bed and knew that something was wrong with my Father. Although he wasn't ill, I knew I must fly back to Houston. While there, for the very first time, my Father told me he loved me (Traditionalist) and then one week after arriving back in Lima, I received word that he became gravely ill and had passed away.

It's so important for parents and family members to set the stage and model open/honest dialogue to let their children know they place a value on their intuitive sensitivities - not only for the HSECG child but to nurture this gift in all children. I know many HSECG's that have buried these innate gifts in childhood – myself included. Denying your support is like denying something that is an integral part of their identity. Since the 1980's, I've been a pioneer in the field of helping people discover their life purpose. One thing I know for sure is that it's vital for those who are given these untaught natural abilities to understand not only their personal value but also their value when co-creating a vibrant community. Acknowledge these gifts, humbly place them within your life purpose tool chest, only to be shared each time you feel called to serve the greater good.

Many Highly Sensitive, Empathic & Creatively Gifted people are uncomfortable talking about or sharing their gifts with others due to a fear of being judged. Our country is currently divided as never before. However, I see this disconnection as a prime motivator forcing each of us to step up to be accountable for the change we wish to see. As mentioned earlier, the first step always begins with compassion, so that we do not judge others by our differences but instead celebrate and welcome the unique contribution of talents and skills others bring to our local, regional and global neighborhood. In time this nation will again have placed a high value on being united - not in spite of our differences but because of the rich tapestry of talents and connection created by those differences.

Maybe it's time to sit down with your family, friends and loved ones and begin sharing your authenticity, passions and dreams. Maybe it's time to stop allowing other people's agenda to define those dreams. And then maybe it's time to fully embrace your higher calling by becoming more visible within your community' just like another famous HSECG we all know and love. You recall the most famous reindeer of all, don't you?