Sensitivity
Sensitivity
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There are people who are quickly affected, for the slightest reasons. They may be affected by nothing.
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Their senses are very delicate, and their feelings are like silk. They are distressed for any reason. They may even cry for no reason.
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And they think they have been wounded or insulted, even by the most beloved of their loved ones!!
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This excessive sensitivity and this excessive emotion are matters that exhaust the soul.
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They exhaust the person from within and exhaust the people who deal with him. Such a person needs to be broad-chested…
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The sensitive person: his chest is narrow, his temperament is narrow, his nerves are tense, and his sadness is near. Whoever deals with him does not find rest.
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As for the broad-chested person, in colloquial speech they call him “bahbouh.”
This person allows everyone to speak with him comfortably, without fear and without caution, -
because he does not become distressed quickly and does not take matters with bad suspicion.
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The self-centered aspect or the personal aspect does not flare up in him.
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He is not overcome by depression, nor sadness, nor distress, nor psychological fatigue, nor psychological constriction.
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Rather, he is a simple, easy person who can preserve his friendships without being shaken by people’s behaviors.
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Sensitivity is a form of self-centeredness mixed with much emotion, and a person’s emotion in it is directed toward himself, not toward others.
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The sensitive person is often sensitive toward the following matters: he is sensitive regarding his dignity,
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people’s respect for him, and people’s treatment of him. He is sensitive regarding his rights, or what he thinks are his rights.
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He may also be sensitive regarding his comfort, and regarding his superiority and distinction, and here he may be very sensitive in a comparative way,
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that is, he compares, for example, how people treat him with how they treat others, with a kind of excessive delicacy…
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The sensitive person’s nerves are very delicate and very fine, quickly affected. Often his reactions appear quickly on his face, and his features expose them…
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Psychological sensitivity is of two kinds: a kind that is affected inwardly and becomes weary in silence, and a kind that rebels and takes revenge for itself.
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We often find the sensitive person much given to complaint, irritable, feeling persecuted. He may also be much given to reproach, much investigation,
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much thinking about the meaning of people’s words, their intentions, and what is hidden behind their behaviors.
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The sensitive person may not tolerate people and withdraw into himself. He may attribute this to an idealism he believes in but does not see realized in the surrounding society.
- An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Sixth Year – Issue No. Twelve – 21-3-1975.
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