Harnessing Your Power!

Harnessing your power!

Last week I talked about how I’ve toned myself down and tuned myself out over the years.  This can be a tempting thing to do when you seem to react more intensely to things than most people around you.

If you are highly excitable though, your greatest excesses may in fact be your greatest assets!

To me, the key is not to tone yourself down for others, but to approach the world more consciously so that you can be in control of your own life choices.

When well harnessed, excitability can be a wonderful thing.  It enables us to pick up on things others might not and experience things in a passionate way.  According to Dabrowski, who coined the term “overexcitability,” or “hyperstimulability,” It is a sign of high developmental potential. This is because intensity can help us to become more self-aware. The problem comes when our self-criticism becomes a cycle and we don’t use it to move forward.

If you are Intellectually excitable – Your mind goes a mile a minute and you make connections others might not.  You are a great problem solver and can come up with new ways of thinking.  If left unchecked though, your active mind can keep you from concentrating or sleeping.  You might be prone to overanalyzing and drawing hasty conclusions.  It might be tempting to suppress your overactive mind through mindless activities such as watching TV, internet or substance use.  Finding ways to bring more mindfulness into your life and practicing observing without judgment can help channel your mental energy in a positive direction.

If you are Imaginatively excitable – You have an intense imagination.  You are a highly creative visionary with an active fantasy life.  You are capable of great innovation and thinking outside the box.  If you don’t watch yourself though, you might lose touch with reality or have your head in the clouds.  You also might be prone to invent and fret about problems that may never happen.  If you’ve stifled you imaginative energy, you might feel stuck or stagnant. With solid grounding, your inspiration can soar.

If you have Psychomotor excitability – People might describe you as animated and full of life.  You can be inspiring, uplifting and charismatic and revitalize people and situations.  When this energy gets out of control, you might be prone to inconsistent energy and/or perpetual overdrive.  You might appear as wired, hyperactive or harried.  At some point, you might burn out and feel listless and/or restlessly inactive. Make sure you are taking time to hit the pause button every now and then so you don’t burn out.

If you are Sensualy excitable – You have an increased awareness of all five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing.  You have a strong appreciation for aesthetics and tend to be highly perceptive and observant.  Because you are more physically sensitive than most, little things can irritate you and you might feel easily over stimulated.  You might also be easily distractible by everything around you that others don’t notice.  It is possible that you have learned to tune these things out, but this can lead to more problems if you ignore your body’s signals.  Check in with yourself regularly to mindfully observe your body.

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If you are Emotionally excitable – You feel things deeply and may have a tender heart.  You are also likely to be compassionate and concerned for others.  With extreme positive emotions also comes extreme negative emotions and others might perceive you as overly dramatic.  Your strong empathy might drive you to put other’s needs before your own.  It is possible you might try to avoid this by distancing yourself from your emotions and the people around you. Acknowledge your depth of emotion and celebrate it.  Just take time to process things before you react out of emotion alone.

Now, I want you to pick one thing about yourself related to intensity or excitability that you have been self-critical of.  Now look at that trait, and describe how it looks when it’s out of control, how it looks when you try to suppress it, and how it looks when it is well harnessed.

Some examples:

Trait Suppressed Uncontrolled Harnessed
Intellectual All plans, no progress Racing thoughts Analytical problem solver
Imaginational Stifled imagination Out of touch with reality Vivid imagination
Psychomotor Listless Wired Animated/Full of life
Sensual Tuned out Raw & Overstimulated Enriched by senses
Emotional Detached Overly emotional Deeply feeling/concerned

Understanding how your powers look when they are well harnessed is the first step to using them more efficiently.

If you’d like to explore it further, you can check out my Ignite Your Power! program!

Comments (2)

  1. Got your email! 😉 I just learned what it is like when my imaginational excitability is out of control. This is when I start to self-sabotage myself out of fear of something. I tend to blow things out of proportion and yeah. It is not pretty. Suppressed for me I guess you could say it is stifled. I’ve had no urge to create anything like poetry, new art project, whatever, music… if I do not want anything to do with music you know SOMETHING is wrong. Harnessed my creativity just flows. It is also when I tend to hyper-focus the most and lose myself in my art… whatever it is I am working on.

    • auroraremember

      Thanks Kris, yeah I think it’s especially easy to lose sight of our imaginational excitability when we have kids. Kind of ironic when they have so much of it!

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