17. You cannot opt out of being gifted! Let’s learn how to embrace it with Nadya Abo-Shaeer
Nadya Abo-Shaeer was identified as a gifted child but choose not to embrace nor identify with this label. As a gifted teenager and collage student she immersed herself into studying as much and diverse as she possibly could. She is leading a typical life of a multipotential gifted neurodiverse person but only realised that so much of who she is and her own story is tied to this identity. Now she is starting to embrace her intensity and her bubbly personality and living her life to her full potential. Letting go of false expectations from society and embracing herself the way she is: an amazing and gifted person.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:
Gifted humans feel very strongly about inequality such as race and gender issues
Interdisciplinary studies are very appealing to the multipotential gifted humans who just need to know multiple subjects in depth
being gifted and thirsting for knowledge can also be overwhelming at times
It is in the gifted nature to care deeply and we might here the phrase “don’t take things so seriously” a lot
Gifted people deeply process emotions
Being gifted is a way of being and there are other people like you out there
As a gifted person you probably hear people call you “too intense, too much” or they tell you “you care too much”
When someone tells you you are gifted, your first reaction is probably “Thank you, but no thank you. I am going to opt out of this.”
Gifted people don’t like loud noises, bright lights or open offices
Gifted attunement -> find the right space for “where” you can be this specific part of yourself
Gifted people do not feel better or superior to other people, they rather feel not enough!
Giftedness can sometimes feel more like a disability or a weakness
Gifted parents know that it gets easier once your (gifted) children get older. You are not alone and knowing about your own giftedness and having the vocabulary helps and empowers you.
As a gifted person you might need more support because you are navigating things in a way with takes more energy and complexity
The key is to harnessing your intensity (as Aurora Remember shows us)
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Aurora Remember’s podcast and community
Book Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg
Book Living with Intensity by Susan Daniels, Michael M. Piechowski