After viewing the fabulous travel photos of our friends' recent trip to Turkey, we got to talking (over wine of course!) and the conversation somehow ended up centering around the topic of support.
Specifically: Do you think you know how to support people who are struggling through an emotionally difficult time?
A meaty topic we all set about unpacking it, listening to one another's perspective and experience. Overall the response was, "Yes, I am supportive of others and know how to be supportive".
Then a new consideration evolved: Do you think you know how to accept support from others during your own emotionally difficult times?
It was somewhat of a surprise that all four of us answered "no" to the latter question.
Being sensitive to the needs of others seemed to come second nature to us, but knowing how we like to receive support? That was quite a challenge. It seems that we all tended to want to "work through it on our own".
As we talked it over we were eventually able to identify some aspects of how we each prefer to receive support - concrete offers (let's go grab a bite to eat), not having someone try to "solve" the situation (a good question asker and a good listener), and acknowledgement (without probing).
Why, we wondered, was it such a challenge to identify and even consider receiving support from others when it was so easy for us to identify how we give support? Receiving can be difficult. Especially if you feel that no one can help you but yourself, and especially if you feel you/your issue isn't worthy of the support.
So...do YOU know how you like to receive support when struggling through a difficult time?
No comments:
Post a Comment