This Too Shall Pass
For a time when I was a kid, I said that I wanted to be Lady Godiva when I grew up, naked on horseback. Where did that come from? While outside playing as a toddler, Mom said I used to take my clothes off and run around naked. She referred to me as Lady Godiva.
So goes the power of a word to a developing child's mind.
I also ate Milk Bones on a couple of occasions and barked like a dog. I told the family to call me Spot. Fortunately, these ideas were not affirmed by anyone, and were allowed to naturally dissipate into childhood memories.
If you confuse people about a fundamental element of their identity, then those who are already so confused they're barely hanging on are going to fall prey to that and all hell is going to break loose.
JORDAN PETERSON
Yesterday, I watched a YouTube short with Jordan Peterson describing cycles of psychological epidemics that have been tracked over the past 300 years. He named:
The cycle goes like this: a case emerges, it spreads like mad and it's everywhere, and then when people get skeptical about it, it dies. It's gone for a generation or two, and then a case pops up, and the cycle may start again.
The key element of this, in my opinion, is the part about people getting skeptical. It's a healthy reaction to witnessing a psychological epidemic.
In our compassion for the person experiencing a psychological crisis—who may be you or me—let's have the presence and grace to get to the root of the matter and to support healing the trauma that triggered the crisis rather than compound it.
A willingness to experience difficult feelings and to do the required work enables us to come through the journey whole and integrated, and it affirms our resilience and humanity.
May you accept the beauty in the human experience—even in the hard stuff.
Lady Godiva - my home town Kelly...!
I teach parents and caregivers how to enhance children’s brain development using musical concepts! | Award-Winning Composer | Board Member HIS International | Book Author | Former Professor | Homeschool Veteran
1 年Well said!
Author // Former Disaster Responder // Crisis Leadership Coach
1 年Last line. There it is
Transition Content and Community Manager
1 年My mom used to say "this too will pass". I never really appreciated when she did that, or saw the power in her acknowledging and accepting the shittiness of a difficult situation and knowing that it wouldn’t last. She wasn't a very warm person and she never went back to revisit hard events to find beauty or meaning in them. But she sat with them and got through them without trying to take an easy way out or blame other people. And she was probably the most in-control person I’ve ever met. I remember at one of my lowest, hardest points in my life, when I was sure she would just tell me to get over it, she just sat with me and didn’t offer any advice (that part was uncomfortable, I remember- everyone else was trying to make me feel better). She just cooked some healthy food and made sure I sat outside for fresh air. It did eventually pass (after a bunch of things I tried that didn’t work), and it took a long time, but I did feel like I climbed a mountain afterward and came down the other side- and learned a lot about myself. I haven’t thought about this for a long time. Thanks for posting.