“Don’t expect anyone to understand your journey, especially if they’ve never walked your path” ~ Unknown
This week I thought it may be useful to revisit this saying and think a bit about the journey that we’ve each been on over the past year.
We can never fully know or understand someone else’s perspective because we are all totally individual, unique human beings. What we can do however is keep an open mind and heart and learn to really listen and connect both to our inner most thoughts and feelings to develop self-awareness of our reactions to others and their stories and to really, actively, listen to others when they are speaking to us.
What’s the first question that we generally ask each other when meeting? ‘How are you?’ and how often do we respond openly to that question with a fully truthful answer? How often do we expect the person asking the question to really want to know the real, in-depth answer? Are we capable of exploring that question in depth for ourselves and answering it truthfully even to ourself or are there some feelings, emotions, reactions that just don’t feel ‘safe’ enough to explore even when we’re alone?
Chaplains are good listeners. We are human and don’t always get it right but we do practise active listening and are non-judgmental listeners who want to hear your story and be part of your journey, however small a part that works for you. We can’t solve problems but we can help gain a different perspective and sometimes sign-post to other services or resources that can also help.
If you’d like to talk to a chaplain you are very welcome to call me directly on my mobile: 07526 378529 either to chat or to arrange a time to meet, or you can contact us via email on info@mitechaplaincy.com where you can request a call-back.
We also have a range of resources on our web-site including some that are more specific to the Covid-19 outbreak and some that help in dealing with stress: https://mite.org.uk
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Facebook: @mitechaplaincy Twitter: @mitesthwarr
