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“On cloud 9”, “lighter than air”, “Heart’s so full it could burst” – these are just a few of the metaphors/similes that try to put words to the body’s experience of the joy of playing, of feeling great. What’s yours? Enjoy your homemade descriptions – Play with them! Savor the taste, texture, shape, color of them – and let those bridge you anytime to the pervasive feeling in your body. They’re yours to come back to whenever you need!

2) Related to Gifted/2E

Each gifted/2E person is unique. And each benefits from knowing how to right-size (a play on Tamar Chansky’s “specific-size”) the joy of sensations in their body. For example, some have heightened attunement to sensations. Their system is so finely tuned to sensation that very little is neutral. And what is less than neutral is not just unpleasant, it’s pain. Giving these children and adults the opportunity to slow down and savor PLEASANT experiences helps rebalance their system.

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Your “Awareness-Self” is witnessing you living your life – aware of you experiencing life, without being the parts that experience it. If that Awareness-Self were taken away from you – and you were not aware of the experiences that the rest of you were experiencing – would that be living? That part of you is Self-As-Awareness. It’s connected to all of you, and yet it is not attached to any part of you or to anything else. From that zoomed-out perspective, your “Awareness-Self” gives you what you need to discern the moment, AS IT IS – without any old wounds, fears about the future, or stories about the present situation. When that part of you says “I notice ____”, it frees you, lets you know you are separate from it, and free to move in whatever direction serves the whole of you well. You are free to play with creating out of the box any movement and solutions that make living amazing!

2) Related to Gifted/2E

One of the hallmark characteristics of many gifted/2E children/people is extreme speed in their area of giftedness. The “I notice ____” sentence starter can help begin to slow down their zero-to-100 in a nanosecond reactions. Other gifted/2E who are visual may process slowly, in part because it takes their brain time to translate into or out of a picture. Saying, “I notice ____”, may give them the time they need to bridge to processing of their pictures, while simultaneously staying engaged with whomever they’re talking. In either situation, “I notice ____” increases the opportunity to find creative opportunities to play with whatever is at hand.

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Connecting to our body through playful movement and experiences literally and figuratively pumps open our hearts to the joy of experiencing life. In these moments, we are strengthening connection to our soul and to our soul’s connection to others. Play is universal – we’re not alone!

2) Related to Gifted/2E

Each person is so unique. Some have such a high need for high stimulation as well as such a high pleasure threshold that the criteria for what’s fun play can become extreme. By helping these children, and adults, practice noticing lower levels of fun—by tuning into their body and their heart—you are helping them find previously undetected areas of play that feed their whole system, including their soul. For other gifted/2E people, sensations are so amplified that play can be a very limited set of experiences. Playing within the comfortable range, attuning to the nuanced differences within that range, we can begin to play with the options of expanding that range of stretch a bit outside the previous limiting comfort zone. Nurturing play is especially important for allowing all of the gifted/2Es to explore arenas outside of their areas of giftedness and twice-exceptionalities, giving them opportunities for fully experiencing life. Additionally, play as a portal to knowing they are not alone is also critically important since their default wiring set them up to know they are different.

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2) Related to Gifted/2E
Those who are gifted and 2E intensely experience the lows, mids, and the highs of living. Often they’re very serious, thoughtful, living in their mind. Or they’re noticing and experiencing everything. They can be slaves to their gifts and/or differences. Finding play that elicits laughter and fun can bring them back to a more centered feeling where they are free to choose. Having the counterbalance of play is especially helpful to them in the integration and well-being of their whole system.

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