You Do Have Your Own Genius Zone
Whether you believe it or not, every single one of us is a genius in one area or another, and probably more than one if you’ve been on Earth for a few decades. Humans are like sponges. We absorb information from our day-to-day lives without any effort at all. Our brains file experiences, catalogue them, and link the ones which are either similar or complimentary. When we go about our daily lives and encounter something which triggers one of those experience files, we’re reminded with a pleasant memory, mild discomfort, or even a stirring in our gut telling us to proceed with caution. At times, it might even trigger our fight or flight mechanism.
If you’re like me, you often have trouble retrieving things consciously; words you’ve known your entire life, names you just heard, the perfect word to describe something you saw or felt; they’re like wisps in the wind—drifting just out of reach until the moment has passed. But when you need something, or an event has an emotional trigger, either pleasant or uncomfortable, what you need will be in your grasp before you even think to ask for it.
Emotion Harbors Our Genius
Quite often, those emotionally charged moments and subsequent information retrieval are 
where your genius resides. Why? Because you know exactly how to handle related situations. You have the benefit of experience, and are often the best person for the job. The trick is honing in on those moments; those reactions, then recognizing them as your genius zone.
Too often, we look at what we’ve learned through experience and discount the value of that information. Like so many other aspects of ourselves, we take it for granted, assuming it’s something we all have, and can access at will.
Cultivating Our Genius
But we aren’t born with this innate knowledge or ability to respond at a high level in given situations. We gather all the bits and pieces together on our trek through life, slowly sorting and filing them until we have a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge embedded in our being.
Granted, none of us knows everything about everything, which is why I refer to it as your “Genius Zone”. You alone have the compilation of knowledge and events in the area or areas you know best. That’s not to say others won’t have the same area of expertise, but it will be affected by their own experiences; their own research, if you will.
Personal Experiences Beget Genius
My own Genius Zone centers around family suicide. It’s not that I’m the only one who’s experienced the trauma and emotional train wreck of a loved one’s suicide. But the way I’ve experienced it is unique. The way I’ve worked through the issues those suicides created along with my own internal cesspool are indeed unique. What I learned along the way will be helpful to someone else, even if their circumstances aren’t the same.
Case in point: I write about my parents’ suicides, but have been told my words were helpful to a woman who lost her spouse to suicide. The relationships we had with those we lost are far different, but some aspects of our healing process are connected. If nothing else, I’m talking about suicide openly and honestly which many other suicide survivors need to hear. They need someone to tell them it’s all right to buck the stigma Society has placed on suicide and talk about the event, your feelings, and the struggles you’re having getting past it all.
No matter who you lose to suicide, or how they chose to go, you need to hear it’s OK to feel angry, to blame yourself, to blame a system which failed you and the person you lost. Most of all, it’s OK to grieve the person who chose to leave rather than waiting for fate or Nature to run its course.
Hearing it From One Who’s Been There
We all respond better to the voice of experience than to someone who’s never been where 
we’re at telling us it’s OK. In many cases, we’ll feel patronized rather than comforted, well-meaning as they might be.
The same is true of mental health in general. If you haven’t lived with someone who’s mental health was shaky, it’s hard for you to understand, not what they were feeling, but what the people around them were going through.
I’ve also learned your Genius Zone takes on a life of its own. Once you’ve proven your expertise in one area, you find people seek you out for things which might be loosely related but share a common challenge.
For me, I started talking about suicide openly about 10 years ago. From there, I began looking at mental health overall, and how poorly we address it. Soon, I was talking to people who’d been victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at a young age. It’s not that I understood in any way, shape, or form what they’d been through. It’s simply my openness and lack of judgement for those who’d suffered from terrible things beyond their control, and who were on their own healing path. Like me, they need to be able to talk about where they’ve been, how far they’ve come, and where they want to go in the future. None of us want to dwell in our past, nor wallow in the pain. We want to celebrate how far we’ve come without forgetting our responsibility to help others with a similar past.
Attracting Others Who Share Our Genius Zone
Like suicide and mental health, people who talk about abuse learn quickly to shy away from those who give the typical, horrified reaction to the barest tip of their initial experiences. They can’t get past the horror to see the triumph which is the most important part of the story. They might mouth platitudes about how well the speaker seems to be doing, or how we need more regulations to prevent childhood abuse. But they miss the primary point. We need to stop shoving things we find uncomfortable under the rug.
Just as mental illness has its signs and symptoms, so too does an abused child, or adult for that matter. But the only way people are going to learn; to understand is for those who know first hand to be able to speak out without judgement, and above all, without someone thinking they need to fix us. We’ve done a phenomenal job of dealing with our own demons, and learned more than can be gleaned from books and studies in the process.
Finding Your Genius Zone in The Life You’ve Led
We pull from our first-hand knowledge, and are a resource for those who are at different places 
in their journey.
Your Genius Zone might not come from something tragic or horrific. It might be something you learned which helped you rise above life’s normal challenges. Or it might be a gift like Empathy or an ability to read peoples’ body language you’ve been able to develop to a high level of accuracy. Or it might be a skill you’ve learned well. Every single one of us is a genius in some aspect, but our genius is wasted if we don’t use it to it’s full extent, continue learning, and use it to help others.
Look deep within and you’ll find your areas of expertise. Don’t stop looking when you find something though. You probably have more Genius Zones than you realize!
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a writer, blogger, ghostwriter, and advocate for cats. Sheri believes in the Laws of Attraction, 
but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income. If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author. And check out her new group, Putting Your Whole Heart Forward.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming release of “Life Torn Asunder: Rebuilding After Suicide”.
