I love your essays, Imelda, and quite often turn them over and have conversations with them in my head. I'm moved to respond more directly now as a fellow hand-talker! I'm sorry that you've been criticised for talking with your hands. It's something that I too tried to suppress for years until I realised that when I'm teaching, paying attention to the movements and shapes that my hands are making quite often helps me to understand, to crystallise, to articulate what it actually is that I'm trying to say! They are reaching and taking something immaterial, intangible, and translating it into the body for me so that I can better express it. Now - making sure that I'm sitting far enough from the computer's camera that it's not being obscured - I let them fly. And "shrill"? The misogyny in that... What about piercing, urgent, able to cut through, to rise above the bombast or confusion or agitation, to quite literally raise the vibration? ;-)
Thank you, again, for all of your practice that you so generously share with us.
I agree that moving my hands helps me be more articulate. The problems occur when I knock over a microphone or disappear behind a blur on zoom!
The high-pitched voice becomes an issue, mostly, when I am miked up and talking to an audience of hundreds. In a regular classroom setting it matters less.
From one mutable sign to another, thank you for this! Understanding that our life experiences can be viewed from different angles is key to surviving many of them (scapegoating included). A great deal of the healing I've gone through over the years has involved learning to view my experiences in a new light. It's not always easy, but it is always helpful.
Isn't that the truth? And it is powerful teaching and healing instead. The most mind-boggling thing is that we might not have developed those skills without this particular past. That sometimes makes me feel dizzy...
I find that a lot of people are far too quick to judge others without knowing much or anything about them. "Judge not lest ye be judged" is a good motto, even if not always easy to apply. In Zen Buddhism there is the concept of "mu". It means something like "no, not, unask the question". It also refers to the "don't know mind". I think it's very helpful to approach situations with that kind of mindset, as it helps us to stay open and perceive them without preconceptions.
Sorry I hit the wrong space. That phrase about the energy signature really struck home. Another brilliant essay. Thank you for being willing to share and peel back your layers and fixes with us. I’m a fixed sign and slow with the unwrapping of mine. It’s not my hands people have criticized but the mobility of my face which apparently doesn’t hide my innermost feelings. It took me years to find out that what bullies were critiquing was my “ startle effect,” a sign of ptsd. These days I’ve created the ability to call in calmness as I occasionally see people who remember the old me.
"A face like an open book" (is what we call that in Dutch). I have one of those too! It caused me no end of trouble in secondary school... Calling in calmness is an advanced skill, well done!
Others read the energy signature that was branded into you.”
Yes... and below that is the authentic energy signature of our soul's calling.... (Just to balance the observation).
I love your essays, Imelda, and quite often turn them over and have conversations with them in my head. I'm moved to respond more directly now as a fellow hand-talker! I'm sorry that you've been criticised for talking with your hands. It's something that I too tried to suppress for years until I realised that when I'm teaching, paying attention to the movements and shapes that my hands are making quite often helps me to understand, to crystallise, to articulate what it actually is that I'm trying to say! They are reaching and taking something immaterial, intangible, and translating it into the body for me so that I can better express it. Now - making sure that I'm sitting far enough from the computer's camera that it's not being obscured - I let them fly. And "shrill"? The misogyny in that... What about piercing, urgent, able to cut through, to rise above the bombast or confusion or agitation, to quite literally raise the vibration? ;-)
Thank you, again, for all of your practice that you so generously share with us.
Hello Sister of the Hand Talker Clan!
I agree that moving my hands helps me be more articulate. The problems occur when I knock over a microphone or disappear behind a blur on zoom!
The high-pitched voice becomes an issue, mostly, when I am miked up and talking to an audience of hundreds. In a regular classroom setting it matters less.
Are you a mutable sign too, by any chance?! : )
Actually cardinal, though mid-Cancer, so very watery at heart!
I see! And yes, my chart is 85% water... : )
From one mutable sign to another, thank you for this! Understanding that our life experiences can be viewed from different angles is key to surviving many of them (scapegoating included). A great deal of the healing I've gone through over the years has involved learning to view my experiences in a new light. It's not always easy, but it is always helpful.
Isn't that the truth? And it is powerful teaching and healing instead. The most mind-boggling thing is that we might not have developed those skills without this particular past. That sometimes makes me feel dizzy...
I find that a lot of people are far too quick to judge others without knowing much or anything about them. "Judge not lest ye be judged" is a good motto, even if not always easy to apply. In Zen Buddhism there is the concept of "mu". It means something like "no, not, unask the question". It also refers to the "don't know mind". I think it's very helpful to approach situations with that kind of mindset, as it helps us to stay open and perceive them without preconceptions.
I'm a cardinal Cancerian, by the way.
I love the concept of "un-asking a question", just as I love the concept of "unlearning"!
Again an interesting essay. Like Lucy I have conversations in my head after reading and I read them several times.
This one made my think of the way my father had to disguise criticism as a compliment.
Like this: ‘ O yes, you did it like that , ok that may work of course. Well done, but maybe next time you should try to…….”
I think that is called "positive parenting" these days, Kees! It sounds like he was a kind man.
Sorry I hit the wrong space. That phrase about the energy signature really struck home. Another brilliant essay. Thank you for being willing to share and peel back your layers and fixes with us. I’m a fixed sign and slow with the unwrapping of mine. It’s not my hands people have criticized but the mobility of my face which apparently doesn’t hide my innermost feelings. It took me years to find out that what bullies were critiquing was my “ startle effect,” a sign of ptsd. These days I’ve created the ability to call in calmness as I occasionally see people who remember the old me.
"A face like an open book" (is what we call that in Dutch). I have one of those too! It caused me no end of trouble in secondary school... Calling in calmness is an advanced skill, well done!