In ancient times temperament was a crucial element in understanding those around you and yourself. No physician would treat an illness until the temperament of a person was decided. Learning that I was an HSP just a few short years ago resulted in me having to look back into my childhood with more than the usual dose of reflection. Having always been concerned with issues of childhood and bringing up children in our times, considering the notion of temperament became even more interesting and relevant once I realised I was HSP.
My own children, by and large, display indications of being HSP too, especially my eldest. It’s tough being the parent of an HSP child because they don’t follow the stereo typical model we have of a child. They aren’t “free” in the same way that we imagine all young children to be. They often display uncharacteristic traits of being mature and responsible. They aren’t always pre-disposed to wanting to have fun in the way we would expect and they usually need little discipline of the normal kind or very little at all. I didn’t know this about my first born and its been often times an arduous, trying journey. I think by virtue of myself being HSP ( although not knowing it) and just using my own temperament as a rough guide was pretty fortunate for my son. Heaven knows what damage we would have done if I hadn’t recognised certain similarities between us and been strong enough to stand up for his so called quirks. The fact remains though, that if I hadn’t stumbled upon this HSP information the inner conflict I had inside of me for both myself and my son would have continued to eat away at me.
For most of my life I always recall feeling not quite up to scratch, socially. I often felt too emotional or touched by issues. These feelings often had to go underground and stay hidden because it seemed to me that I was just too sensitive or touchy as I was often called as a young child, teenager and young adult. It was, when I look back, very bewildering and left me often at war with myself, never ever feeling “enough”.
Most HSP children, if they haven’t gone completely underground, are superbly intelligent in some shape or form. My own son, now a few days off being 17 always displayed an extraordinary grasp on things like science or would cut myself and my husband dead with his knowledge of things little boys really ought not to know. The first word that he read independently was pharmacy! When I was heavily into mediation and all things psycho-spritual he drew pictures of me with a third eye exactly where it should be. I had never spoken to him of such things but when gently questioned about his drawing, he looked at me in his usual quizical fashion with eyebrows raised more suited to a university mad professor and said ” don’t you know mum- I have one too?” pointing to the middle of his forehead. ”That’s for seeing things when my other eyes are tired of all the rubbish I have to look at!” The ironic thing is that he is the complete antithesis of a “spiritual” child. His life revolves around quadratic equations, theoretical physics and scientific proof.
More on this topic later.
