A fun fact about me is that I am an avid reader. In almost every book I pick up, there is a consistent basic plotline: the protagonist learns about how to fit into their world, relationships progress, something goes wrong/something knocks them off kilter, and the protagonist has to pick themselves up off the floor and figure out how to overcome their challenges. In almost every book I read, the conclusion holds a happy ending.
Somehow, someway, we all have our turn getting knocked off of our kilter; maybe we lose a job, get shut down by a friend, or someone gets sick. When something difficult happens, a lot of feelings arise that blurs the path back to “normal”. For a lot of us, it is much easier for us to stay on the floor when we get knocked down by life; those feelings we face become overwhelming and bury us where we sit. For others, maybe we pretend those feelings don’t exist and everything is fine on the floor, where nothing is wrong in our life.
However you handle the initial landing on the ground after life shoves you, there is a defining moment where you get to make your own choice: do you stay down or do you get up? Getting up may include a lot of fear, pain, and frustration. You may not be able to get up all by yourself. You may not know what lies before you on the path moving forward. You may not know where to begin in the process of getting up off the floor.
While all these things might be true, you are a resilient person. Much like the characters in the books I read, you have experienced hardship, and you have overcome that hardship. No matter how long it takes for you to get up off the ground after life knocks you down, you have done it in the past and you can do it now or in the future. Reader, we may not always get the perfect happy ending like the books give us, but we do get the choice to pick ourselves up off the floor and figure out how to move forward, towards something better.
Nikki Larsen, LMFT - Associate
Supervised by Erika Yourdan, M.A., LMFT-Supervisor
We are all storytellers. I believe that people are shaped by the stories they are told by family, friends, culture, society, or even themselves. Sometimes stories are ruled by brokenness, fear, hurt, past trauma, or future anxieties. Dominant themes that run these stories might include “I’m not enough,” or, “I’m a failure.” It can be intimidating, scary, or even painful to share our stories with others, but letting people into your narrative is the most beautiful act of bravery.
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