Quick Thought #24 – How to make it not seem overwhelming
The challenge is to create a society where more people have access to experts and are not left to fend for themselves.
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Seeking Simple Answers is The Opposite of Emotional Intelligence
Accepting that reality and moving forward is maturity. It’s how we find solutions to complicated problems like a lack of mental health resources, addiction, oppression, poverty, etc. Those answers will not be found in conspiracy theories or blame games. It’s how we sit with people who have suffered loss and trauma without dismissing their pain.
Sadly, too many people seem to be looking for the easy answer to ease their discomfort rather than the answers that will bring about real change. We all pay for not teaching people how to be emotionally intelligent enough to do that.
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Why Finding your Current Baseline Matters
Many people give up on healing because they can’t see how far they’ve come. They can only see how far away their ideal self is from where they are now. Sadly, this ideal is often unrealistic. We are also blind to our progress because we didn’t set the baseline. We look at our status today and can only compare it to what we think we should be instead of looking back and seeing how much improvement there was.
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The Difference Between Knowledge and Life Experience
You should not feel sorry for me. This post isn’t about me. As I said, I have a condition that millions of people deal with every day. I’ll do the same. It’s about the reality that people around us are living with things that require efforts that we don’t understand. Just showing up for life every day requires effort and dedication from everyone you know. The amount of effort and challenges are different, and they are not distributed equally. You shouldn’t dismiss anyone’s struggles, especially if you’ve not been in those same circumstances yourself.
Some things have to be experienced to see all the details. When someone is willing to share the details of their challenges, listen and learn. Raise their voices instead of assuming you know the answers.
Experience is a hard teacher. We all can learn the lessons from those who’ve lived it.
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Victim, Survivor, or Both?
We are survivors because we are still here. We are victims because someone harmed us while committing a crime. There’s no reason to complicate those terms and there’s no reason any of us who experienced abuse can’t be both.
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Quick Thought #22 – Kate Middleton and Filling in the Blanks
Most of the time, we don’t know what people are dealing with, but even when we do know, they may react to trauma and stress in ways that don’t make sense to us.
That’s life. That’s being human; being mature means accepting and being comfortable with it – not trying to fill in all the blanks yourself.
