In my last 3 blogs you could read about similarities between (high)sensitivity and giftedness. Both qualities exhibit some astonishing resemblances, face similar challenges in society and may have a hard time to ‘don’t worry, be happy’.
What also caught my attention is the fact that giftedness (or high intelligence) is a very broad field and that you can be gifted in different ways. This surprised me, in a way, and strongly reminded me of the diversity in characteristics that can be found in high sensitivity, too.
Therefore I’m excited to present to you 8 different forms of giftedness.
Do you share my excitement?
What is ‘giftedness’?
A little more about giftedness, before we start. Giftedness is generally defended by analytical ability, enthusiasm and fast thinking. Although often an IQ above 130 is held as a threshold for giftedness, intelligence is not the most important factor.
In order to get more agreement about what ‘giftedness’ actually is, a number of people who work professionally with gifted adults (psychologists, career coaches, business physicians and a psychiatrist1 decided to come together and shed some light on the matter. The result was an existential model with the following ‘ideal’ baseline of a highly gifted (young) adult:
‘A gifted person is a quick and smart thinker who can handle complex matters. Autonomous, curious and driven in nature. A sensitive and emotional person, intense alive. He or she experiences fun in creating.’
Giftedness can be differentiated in 8 categories, which are independent of the IQ:
Figure 1: Multiple giftedness. Each form of giftedness has a number of features. I assume that a person does not necessarily need to have all the features of a given form of giftedness to qualify as ‘Highly intelligent’. (Based on a scheme of Mark Vital2).
(High) sensitivity and giftedness
Surprise! Not only symptoms of depression or behavioral disorders are shared by high sensitive and highly gifted people. Both are sensitive, feel intense emotions, have a high level of consciousness and are creative in thoughts and deeds. It is therefore not surprising that many highly gifted contemporaries recognize themselves in the characteristics of (high) sensitivity (reference bogg). However, this does not mean that all (high) sensitive people are also highly gifted while most highly gifted people seem to be high sensitive.
-> What are your areas of giftedness?
-> Do you think everyone of us is gifted in one or another area?
-> Should we pay more attention to all form of giftedness and cherisch and celebrate them more, even if they do not result in a brilliant carreer that makes big money?
Please let me know what you think! Your opinion is important to me.
References 1, 2
Image credit
‘Are all High Sensitive people highly gifted?’ Find out on the HSP congress in The Netherlands, 13 October! Here’s how you save 10% on your registration. I will launch my book, a practical guide and travel report on HSP on this congress!
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Do you like this article? Be sure to read: ’Is there a biological basis for high sensitivity?’ Online July 5th.
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