A Receptive Spirit: People Who Learn New Things And Want To Connect Emotionally
A receptive mind is characterized by the fact that it is very inquisitive, wants to experience and feel something and to build intense emotional bonds with others. Basically, it is hearts that yearn to find meaning in life. But if they cannot give it meaning, it often happens that they experience depressive episodes or feel deeply disappointed.
Most of us are unlikely to be familiar with the term “receptive mind” and may even seem strange. We could say that we have arrived at a time when more personality profiles, behaviors and attitudes towards life are being defined every day. The topic of our article today is not as new as we might think, because it first appeared in 2000 in connection with the book The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius by psychologist Mary-Elaine Jacobsen. The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide to Freeing Everyday Geniuses , not available in German).
“It’s not that the more we learn, the better we understand things, but that they become more mysterious.”
Albert Schweitzer
What this author and many other psychologists have been able to observe in their practices for years is a certain personality profile that until recently had not been given a name. These are people who shine, who are not only characterized by their knowledge, but above all by their strong sensitivity, their intense passion for life and sometimes by a few unreachable great ideals. They long to realize their vision of the future that is worthwhile and that matches their talents, they want a partner with whom they can experience intense feelings and build a meaningful life, and are looking for friends with whom they can connect intellectually and emotionally.
We could say that there is no mediocrity for these people – everything should be intense and have a real meaning for them with which they can grow, even be almost magical. As we can already imagine, these people live in constant contradiction. Their expectations and their receptive, but above all sensitive, mind collide almost continuously with the harsh reality.
A receptive mind and its characteristics
It is common to mistake a receptive mind for a highly intellectual or high IQ. At this point we would like to say that this is not always the case. We are dealing here with people who have a great ability to achieve success. They are also curious, eager to learn, and want to enjoy the entire process emotionally.
Let’s look at more of their properties below.
A receptive mind grasps very quickly
A receptive mind has a tree-like train of thought. One thought leads to another, deeper one, and then it goes on to the next thought, and then back to another. These people are interested in many things at the same time and try to find out more about them because they are driven by their curiosity, the almost relentless need for knowledge and discovery.
Your mind works very quickly, is very attentive to all stimuli and is occasionally frustrated that it may not be able to take in everything that surrounds it.
An almost painful empathy
One of their most typical characteristics is their ability to connect with others. It is easy for them to perceive the needs of those around them, to read their feelings and to get to know their interests. But if there is one thing they expect others to do, it is that they be responded to with the same emotional intensity.
Since that doesn’t always happen, they repeatedly get deeply disappointed. Criticism devastates them, as does deception and emotional coldness.
These people always experience the same criticism
People who know someone with a receptive mind say about this person: “She is too passionate, too sensitive, too dramatic, going too fast …” ” To …” , that is the eternal litany with which this kind of Face.
Still, they believe that there is still more to be achieved
This is where the contradiction of a receptive mind comes into play, namely the assumption that there is always something missing, that his emptiness is enormous and that he has to work harder and achieve a lot more, although his environment is of the opinion that he constantly lives in excess .
His dissatisfaction is enormous. And that’s because he fails to build meaningful personal relationships, because their life continues to have no meaning and he might have to try even more to find out this or that, in order to simply know more.
Profound thinkers with sensitive hearts
If there is one thing a receptive mind craves, it is to meet a loving partner who is emotionally and mentally challenging. This is undoubtedly one of the goals that are set very high and at the same time guarantee frustration.
It is therefore often the case that these people go through very complex, anxious or even depressive phases. They are very sensitive and because of this, on those days or months of isolation, it often happens that they think even more and try to forget their disappointment by immersing themselves in books, courses and new knowledge.
In summary, one could say that the greatest need of a receptive mind is to feel realized and accepted. It is never easy when a person is constantly feeling so many emotions and has a never-ending, relentless longing to accumulate knowledge in order to find meaning in life.
This “goal” of finding a meaning in life is not so easy to achieve, we know that. Therefore, these people should learn to stand with both feet on the ground, to find an inner balance through which they understand that we humans have the meaning in life that we want and that many answers are not in our surroundings or in are to be found on someone’s side, but in our inner being, which needs to be nourished, valued more and realized by ourselves.
