📅 Thought for today:
‘Why can’t I be different and unusual… like everyone else?’
— Viv(ian) Stanshall
#thoughtfortoday #different #unusual #normal #conforming #shame
I am often asked by clients, “Am I normal?”
It is most often asked in the context of what they are experiencing at that time – they are asking if other people experience the same thing.
It is wrapped up in self-judgement, that disquieting inner critic telling us we are not normal, we should not feel this way, and generally emotionally torturing us by convincing us we are unusual.
So it is understandable that clients ask this question. They don’t feel “normal”.
They are, however, normal for them.
A sense of relief comes from knowing they are “not the only one”.
That whatever they are experiencing, so is someone else.
And therein lies a paradox.
We want to be unusual, different, and “interesting”.
Yet in moments of distress and disturbance, we want to be sure we are just like other people.
