Thursday, 24 November 2011

The Big Emotional Variable.

I was reading the latest blog post by somebody who’s having a tough time coping with her emotional reaction to difficult circumstances. It seems to me that she’s buckling under the pressure, and I was reminded again of how most of us frequently get something wrong.

We all know that we’re all made differently, and that everybody’s reaction to the same problem is likely to be at least slightly different. What many of us often fail to realise is that differences in the level of individual sensitivity aren’t always slight; sometimes they’re massive. The majority of people fall within reasonable parameters, and so the majority regard that range as ‘normal.’ The minority are outside the range; some are remarkably insensitive, while others feel every pin prick as though it were a carving knife. They’re often the people who become artists, musicians, poets and writers, and they can’t help being that way. It’s how they’re made. There’s even a persuasive theory that it’s due to their brains being wired differently.

So what we need to do is stop judging a person’s reaction according to our own view of the circumstances, and instead see it in terms of the person reacting to them. No more ‘I don’t see why you’re taking this so seriously, it’s only a damn such-and-such. Pull yourself together.’ It really isn’t that simple, and it only makes things worse for the poor unfortunate who is suffering. Do understand, please; they’re suffering, whether we think they should be or not.

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