The Power of Everyday Emotional Experiences
Do you feel that there are defining moments in life? Are there scenes in your memory that are crystallized? Is there a sliding door or path that you take that would lead you to a different place? Possibly, but sometimes, these defining moments are a culmination of small healing moments. Rather than one moment, we are the sum of all our experiences and small choices that we make every day.
I remember being in grad school and doing a project on multicultural counseling, one of my niche areas. The volume of my Rasta experience was high at that time; I have respected the Rasta culture for most of my life. The family story goes that my mom’s life was saved by a Rasta gentleman years ago. My respect for Rastafarians was also compounded by daily listening to the Survival album on vinyl during a tough period of my life.
For this multicultural counseling project, I used images of a “traditional” therapy session: a white male therapist in a suit and tie, legs folded in an office, processing what his client was saying. I contrasted this traditional image with one of a “dread” in a healing circle processing emotions with others who needed his help. Not surprisingly, none of the graduate students ever considered that the “dread” or culturally different image might actually be doing something therapeutic.
Thinking Outside the Box
Most people are unable to embrace therapy in all its forms. These short-sighted decisions come at a large emotional cost. Many people choose to reject counseling interventions and stay stuck in their negative patterns. At its root, psychotherapy is facilitating a corrective emotional experience. It is generally recognized that we all need corrective therapeutic experiences to be our best selves. You may think that you have it all together but you don’t, none of us do.
Before you go running for the hills or thinking someone is trying to “shrink your head”, ask yourself when was the last time someone brought out the best in you? Regardless of the package of the healing emotional experience, it is therapeutic interaction and in some forms, is therapy. Put another way, don’t throw out the gift of healing because you are unfamiliar with the packaging.
What is Therapy Really?
Therapy is allowing your best self to come out and trusting your internal guidance system. These small micro-actions or corrective emotional experiences can bring you joy daily. Let’s acknowledge that life is hard work but we shouldn’t always feel that we are “working” at our lives. The goal is to feel connected and “plugged in” with a state of constant mindfulness. We want to feel that we are living in the moment.
Life is also about balance if we spend too much of our time in constant mindfulness we will not process the “tasks” of our day. So today, let us make some time to live, some time to think, some time to task and some time to bliss and if anyone give you a hard time with that, tell them your therapist said so and then send them here.
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