What makes accepting help easier is to have it defined as help. “I can help you with that” is a world away from “let me do that,” and the first step here is listening. Asking if it’s awkward to get in and out of the shower, difficult to wash your back (a task that everybody has a hard time with!), put on your socks – to a client this sounds so different than saying “I’ll do that for you.”
Hindsight is the distance we need in order to have full visual acuity. In hindsight we also see a situation in a larger context and from a different angle. Hindsight is re-visioning.
“Resilience begins with failure.” This is not a mindset we generally choose to cultivate but it has a truth of its own. When you think about it, a lot of our growth comes from having made mistakes.
Have you ever had black days? Days when you wanted to see nobody and do nothing, even the things you like best? If this happens once in a while, you could call it sadness. But if it lasts for more than three or four days it is known as depression. Depression is not a weakness, but a medical malfunction that takes away your control, and there are two major types. One is triggered by specific events like a death in the family, loss of a job, an injury that affects your ability to function as you typically would.
There’s a special kind of joy that happens in groups. We find our greatest times of happiness in moments of collective effervescence. It’s a concept coined by the sociologist Emile Durkheim to describe the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. Human beings aren’t meant to be alone. Community is critical to our health and well-being.
