Expectations

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Recently I came across this wonderful illustration by @positivelypresent and it cemented my thoughts that everyone would benefit from reminding themselves of this “simple” fact.  My expectations (and yours) are not those of others.  What you expect from a situation or a person, isn’t going to match up with the expectations of that person or that situation.

And that is fine.

This is where mindfulness and non-judgmental stance (DBT) come into the picture.  By accepting people, places, events, and things as they are we will make our interactions with them run much more smoothly.  When we begin to perceive that things are going “bad” or “poor” we would benefit from taking a step back, taking a breath, and re-orienting ourselves.

Call to Courage

Brené Brown has a Netflix special that went up on Friday (4/19) and it is great. If you’ve got Netflix be sure to check it out. If you don’t have Netflix track down a friend that does and watch it together.

Brené Brown: The Call to Courage. With humor and empathy, Brené Brown discusses what it takes to choose courage over comfort in a culture defined by scarcity, fear and uncertainty

Brené Brown: The Call to Courage. With humor and empathy, Brené Brown discusses what it takes to choose courage over comfort in a culture defined by scarcity, fear and uncertainty

Dr. Vincent Felitti

Dr. Felitti’s work has changed the way we look at childhood trauma, chronic stress, and trauma in general. The ACE study showed how we as humans “convert childhood traumatic emotional experiences into organic disease later in life” (APB Speakers, Aug 28, 2018). In the video Dr. Felitti speaks specifically about obesity, though these correlations can also be seen within substance use disorder and many other forms of addictive behavior.

Trigger Warning for the video. He does speak about incest, sexual abuse, assault, and other traumatic events. None of these are discussed in detail.

A renowned physician and researcher, Dr. Vincent J. Felitti is one of the world's foremost experts on childhood trauma. Leading the charge in research into how adverse childhood experiences affect adults, he is co-principal investigator of the internationally recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a long-term, in-depth, analysis of over 17,000 adults.