Freeing Yourself
Letting go of irrational fears and/or gaining new perspectives
In one of my sexual abuse survivor groups, a woman shared her fear of hands. She was completely afraid of hands. She would never shake a hand and the concept of another human extending a "helping hand" was beyond her grasp.
As she told her story, it became readily apparent how she associated human hands with tools to commit despicable acts. She wanted to overcome this illogical fear, but she had not overcome at that time. She really wanted to conquer this fear, I'd like to think she did eventually.
Hands have been used to hurt me also. I think that as a child, I had enough helping hands and loving touches for me to realize that not all hands are bad. A few months ago, I wrote about when I was in 3rd grade and my little dog, Puff, was hit by a car. My little dog was in such pain that when I reached out to help her, she nipped at me.
I held her anyway. https://www.paperdolls.today/p/victimssurvivors-in-pain
I view this as a critical learning experience for me. I didn't simply learn how much I love animals, or how people need to slow down on residential streets. I learned that when someone is in pain, it's hard to distinguish help from hurt. I also learned that in my essence I want to comfort those with whom I love.
As a kid, I didn't have the words or the ability to communicate those insights, but my adult self can look at my eight year old developing self and understand the value of what I learned and how I interpreted those painful events.
For our live chat tomorrow afternoon, I'd love to chat about how you learned to see things (nouns or verbs) with a different perspective. Simple examples could be times you've misunderstood the lyrics to a song and then realized the words to a song are actually something totally different. https://stacker.com/music/lyrics-60-famously-misunderstood-songs-explained
For those leaning towards more profound insights it could be as you emerged from the darkness of the cave, and began seeing things in the light, with color, dimension combined with other senses like smell and touch.
https://www.paperdolls.today/p/aprils-allegory-of-the-cave
Think about it. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. I'll be online at 1 PM MST tomorrow, Friday. August 30, 2024. I'll send out a reminder shortly before it starts, with a "Join Now" button included.
I look forward to chatting with you live.