If it’s hysterical, it’s historical.
If it’s hysterical, it’s historical.
Here are my therapeutic musings…
🧠 I’ve been thinking about…What makes a proportionate vs. disproportionate response. And how subjective that is. It’s easy to label someone “hysterical”. We’ve all done it. It’s not so nice when the shoe’s on the other foot, though. I had an upset with a close friend recently, who suggested I was reacting in a rather OTT fashion (yup, therapists are still human!).
Sure, I probably was being a <tad> oversensitive. But, you see, I wasn’t just getting upset about this one incident. I was being unconsciously triggered and reminded of all the times in the past when similar feelings of disappointment and betrayal had arisen. Which had not been put right.
In therapy, there’s a great saying: “If it’s hysterical, it’s historical”.
In other words, when we have a particularly strong response to something, it’s worth looking at our histories to see what else might be going on. Once I felt ready, I explained this to my friend. And shared relevant examples from my back catalogue. After that, she had a much better understanding of what was going on. And we made peace.
📢 Ask yourself: Being totally honest, when did I last respond in a way that was disproportionate to the situation? What past experiences might this have reminded me of? How far back does this feeling go?
💡The revelation: Through better understanding our responses, we can develop more compassion for ourselves. And also elicit it from others. It’s a bit like when a toddler falls over and cries. Sometimes they’re in pain but, most of the time, they’re crying about all the other times they fell and no one was there to comfort them.
💛 Product I’m loving:East by West’sTongue Tingler (£12). I have long been a fan of daily tongue scraping to keep my mouth feeling clean and fuzz-free. According to both Chinese and Ayurvedic principles, the health of your tongue reflects the health of your entire body. Whether you buy into that or not, this is a super simple practice to introduce to your morning routine. It helps aid digestion, eliminate toxins from the body and optimise your sense of taste.
Thanks for being here,
