Is there a word made for you?
Do you ever come across a word that captures something about you so accurately that you – and others who know you well – recognise it in an instant?
It happened to me the other day. I was listening to a conversation between Liz Gilbert and Glennon Doyle – authors, thinkers, feelers. And Glennon used a word I’d never heard before.
I’m paraphrasing, but she said something along the lines of ‘I don’t want to understand. Who wants to just understand? I want to OVERstand!’.
Overstand! What a brilliant word. It made me laugh out loud. And when I told a friend about it later in the day, she outdid me in the laughing stakes and said, “There’s a word for you!”.
Something about overstand isn’t just true of me but ULTRAtrue. And it’s true of what I regard as a major part of my being highly sensitive – the drive to make sense of things.
To my surprise, I found overstand actually is a word. It has various definitions, including:
To keep on a navigational course beyond a mark. HSPs do tend to keep at things for longer than others. And go beyond the original task.
To sail at a wider angle than is normal. We’re often known for looking at things from all angles (not just wide but above, below and beyond).
To stand or insist too much or too long. Yep, we’ll stick with something if we feel strongly about it, can’t solve a problem or haven’t had a satisfactory answer. All or any of which can cause exhaustion and/or tension in ourselves and others.
To express a deeper, more complete and positive understanding of something. Interestingly, the word is used in Rastafarian culture to avoid the negative connotation of UNDERstanding something. Genius!
I see overstanding as aspirational and joyous – permission to keep being curious and have an infinite capacity to keep learning. To deconstruct things to see what makes them up. To go beyond symptoms to roots. And to look beneath the surface to see what’s really going on.
How does overstand land with you? Maybe you’ve had similar enjoyment and enlightenment with another word? Either way, it’s fun to play, don’t you think?
