PORCELAIN INTERIOR. I'd like to hear about...

[Clary]

your Screen Name, and how you selected it. It intrigues me.

[groundhogg]

Me too! I can't stand not knowing!!!!

[Porcelain Interior]

I have been called overly sensitive and dramatic my entire life and I think Porcelain Interior is a nicer way of saying "Too emotional".

I'm bipolar so it matches my personality I think...

P.S. McDougalling does help moods I am discovering.

[Sunny]

What a great association

[groundhogg]

I wonder if we ALL aren't porcelain on the insides...important to remember in our dealings with one another ...gotta be careful and don't break each other .

thank you, Porcelain Interior, for that explanation...it's interesting and thought provoking

[Clary]

I have been called overly sensitive and dramatic my entire life and I think Porcelain Interior is a nicer way of saying "Too emotional".

Kindred Spirit...
Thanks for that rich response. Here are a few of my thots and experiences on this "fragile" subject.

My mother referred to me as "a little actress" when I spoke my true feelings, and it took years for me to figure out the difference/confusion in the words (which sounded positive) and the tone (which was very negative), and that she wasn't paying me a compliment! (She was also a practicing alcoholic by the time I was born.)

I have sometimes, throughout my life, felt misunderstood and that my intentions are misintrepreted. Eventually, after many private tears, and many, many experiences and years (and lots of hours in AlAnon), my understanding expanded.

I am by nature Passionate, Expressive, Responsive, Interested, Kind, and very CURIOUS, and have an inborn, innate (can't take credit for it) compassion--for people, critters, LIFE.

That is apparently NOT the norm in our busy, busy society today! --and I am often unprepared for responses that come my way. Some people are thrown off-center (and become suspicious of) by true, honest, deep emotions and responses; or even by excitement about living --and go into attack mode (or competition instead of cooperation) , to feel comfortable, it seems.

If a derogatory look or word or expression comes my way now, I try to examine "my part" (and make amends if it seems appropriate), and otherwise, I detach with love, and I just say to myself, "I am not ___________, and I am not guilty; I am passionate!" --and move on along my way without responding to what feels to me to be an inappropriate "attack".

Another help to me when someone says I am TOO sensitive, or implies I am
Too__?__, is to try to always remember to ask the question (to myself or out loud, depending on the circumstances), "According to whom and compared to what?" In ALL cases so far, the answer has been, "According to THAT person and to what THAT person wants, believes, etc. Very freeing!

Melody Beattie, a favorite author of mine, wrote,

"Watch out for shame. Many systems and people reek of shame. Shame says, Don't think... Don't feel.... Don't grow or change.... Don't be alive.... Don't live life.... Be Ashamed!
" Shame can hold us back, hold us down, and keep us staring at our feet. "

Today, I choose to be happy, joyous, and free-to-be me!

I took a class years ago that described the difference in self-esteem and self-worth. Basically the instructor said, Self-esteem in how we see (estimate) our selves, and Self-worth is how much value we place on what we see!

These issues are also an important part of one's overall WELLNESS program, I believe, and worth examining when appropriate.

Thanks for your response, P.I. AND--I love your creative way of seeing and accepting yourself, and how you have come to terms with understanding your own unique Porcelain Interior nature, and I appreciate your openness.

Shine on.