How can you feel good about your High Potential in everyday life?
What? Is it possible to live well with HPI? But, yes, that’s why we created Suivez le Zèbre, the positive blog that democratizes High Potential!
Mel Poinas, founder of Suivez le Zèbre, asked herself this question when she was detected:
How can you find your place in a world designed for 97% of people when you belong to the remaining 3%?
Since 2017, we’ve been trying to answer that question by helping you find your place! If you’ve been detected as High Intellectual Potential, you know that there’s life before and life after stripes.
But after the test, how do you manage to live with this unique way of functioning and fit in?
High Potential: taking care of yourself to avoid overheating
An HPI person experiences things with great intensity. At Suivez le Zèbre, we advise you to take good care of yourself.
Of course, this advice applies to everyone, but it is all the more important for HPIs. Why? We tend to overheat quickly if we don’t settle down.
Our 15 tips for living well with your High Intellectual Potential
We’ve illustrated several with our new mascot! We hope you like it?
HPI Council 1
1- Try to create routines like eating, getting up and going to bed at the same times, even on vacations and weekends.
HPI Council 2
2- Find out how many hours you need to wake up feeling rested. Some people need 5 hours, while others need 9.
HPI Council 3
3- Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and avoid overwork and fatigue.
HPI Council 4
4- Adopt a relaxing activity such as yoga, sophrology, meditation, cardiac coherence, reading, gardening, walking, music, art…
HPI Council 5
5- Play sports regularly, outdoors if possible: nature has a soothing effect. It reduces stress and depression, and increases feelings of joy andself-esteem.
HPI Council 6
6- Eating a balanced, tailor-made diet is a priority. Identify your food intolerances and avoid sugar, which is an additional stimulant for the brain! Eat proteins that help renew the body’s cells.
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7- Adopt a pet or green plants, for a guaranteed soothing effect and a best friend for life!
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8- Don’t feel guilty about doing nothing! That’s when you’re at your most creative and inspired. Taking care of your body will help you take care of your brain. But the reverse is also true!
HPI Council 9
9- Learn to surround yourself well. Empathy, optimism and benevolence are the driving forces for high-potential people.
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10- Take the time to work on yourself to help you understand your mechanisms (on your own or with the help of a competent professional).
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11- Express your emotions and feelings without getting carried away. Impulsivity is highly counterproductive. It often triggers cycling and guilt. When you’re ready, make your voice heard without aggression or resentment.
HPI Council 12
12- Try to be patient and indulgent with yourself and others: nice things take time and are done with a lot of love.
HPI 13 Council
13- Be brave! It’s hard to silence the little bike, the impostor syndrome and the perpetual questioning… Learn to love yourself without wanting to change yourself.
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14- Give yourself some quiet time every day to rest your brain and recharge your batteries.
HPI Council 15
15- Don’t wait to get your hands on the HPI comic book, a colorful life to make you feel less alone!
Find all this advice in the comic strip written by Mel Poinas: HPI, une vie haute en couleur
Page from the comic strip, HPI une vie haute en couleur, published by Vuibert.
If you’re looking for concrete tools to find your place and quiet the little bike that’s going round and round in your head, the book Follow the Zebra by Mel Poinas can be very useful. You’ll find explanations of your own inner workings and practical exercises to help you channel your High Potential into everyday strength.
To go further, you can read
- How to manage hypersensitivity and emotions
- Getting started in personal development
- Our list of personal development tools
- Is an HPI necessarily hypersensitive?
- What is being Gifted?
- Online IQ tests for a fee, beware of scams?
- Mary Rocamora’s pre-test
- Being a High Potential Woman
