HPI, an introduction to personal development

Why learn about personal development if you’re HPI?
(gifted, zebra, high potential, hypersensitive…)?

Help yourself and heaven help you.

I understood the meaning of this sentence rather late. For a long time I thought it was a religious proverb, but not at all. It’s much simpler than that.

If you help yourself and take yourself by the hand, then things will fall into place naturally. Don’t wait for a miracle if you want things to get better, but be the initiator of this change.

What is personal development?

Personal development is a philosophy of life that involves working on oneself, bringing together a range of currents of thought, tools and methods, and enabling us to access our deepest essence.

The following tools, methods and currents of thought can be cited:

• positive thinking
• transactional analysis
• neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
• non-violent communication
• hypnosis
• yoga
• cognitive-behavioural therapy CBT
• sophrology
• cardiac coherence
• meditation
• the Coué method
• humanistic psychology (Maslow’s pyramid)
• the enneagram
• music therapy
• the waking dream
• reflexology
• magnetism
• art therapy
• coaching
• cellular memory
• pet therapy
• naturopathy
• acupuncture
• Tai-chi-chuan
• the NAET method
• the EFT method(Emotional Freedom Techniques)

This is a non-exhaustive list, but it already gives you a good idea of what’s out there to work on and refocus on.

Happiness isn’t innate, it’s learned and cultivated. They don’t teach us this at school. We’re not taught to be happy, but rather to be perfect.

Mel Poinas, Suivez le Zèbre

(Excerpt from Follow the Zebra, July 2020 edition)

Why learn about personal development when you’re HPI?

The most important thing when starting out in personal development is to find what suits you and not follow everything you’re told to the letter like a doctrine. You need to test the different tools and appropriate.

I practice zootherapy and musicology on a daily basis thanks to Léon, who is a real stress-reliever, and to the music that follows me everywhere via my headphones. everywhere I go via my headphones.

Personal development should be seen as an aid to self-knowledge, not as an exact science. It’s a set of methods to help us step back and let go.

It’s a path that helps us discover our vision of happiness. For my part, thanks to personal development, I try to apply simple things that help to calm me down.

High Potential is not a disease; we use the verbs identify or detect rather than diagnose.
You can self-identify, but you’ll never be perfectly sure of the result. We all have our own cognitive biases.
In my experience, at first, people with high intellectual potential find it hard to consider, as they often suffer from a severe impostor syndrome.

If you want to test yourself and reassure yourself before contacting a psychologist, on Suivez le Zèbre, we offer severalpre-tests without registration to identify a potential giftedness.

You can also find more information, resources and tools on Giftedness in Mel POINAS‘ book. With a lot of humor, Mel tells the story of the discovery of her giftedness and the routines she put in place to finally find her place!

You can also read

• HEP, High Emotional Potential
• The differences between Giftedness and High Emotional Potential
• The best books about High Learning Potential
• The impostor syndrome
• Giftedness : 20 characteristics of complex and laminar profiles
• How to take the WAIS 4 test?
• How do you say you are HPI?
• Giftedness and Hypersensitivity

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