I really enjoyed this post! It gave me lots to think about.
Using your analogy... I think that from a mental health perspective, the trauma caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences can be likened to calluses that don’t heal or return to status quo. That is, unless one is shaped into resilience by positive influences such as a teacher who understands and encourages you, or a trusted friend who you can confide in, or a mentor who believes in you. Having these types of support systems, I believe, can mitigate the long-term effects of trauma. I can also highly recommend building one’s Wisdom Skills with training in Positive Psychology with an instructor like Dr. Shani Robins. I found his course invaluable in achieving optimal mental health.
Thanks for the kind and generous comment! So, right, I will talk to the other Fossils about this one and I’m looking forward to trying to think through it. But I really like the idea that you allude to here that the same stimulus might be a psychological insult or a psychological challenge depending on the tools that one has to bring to bear. So a resilient person might improve when given critical feedback, taking it as a challenge, while someone who is less skilled might just, well, be insulted, if you see what I mean. There’s a lot to think through here and my sense is that the challenge/insult distinction is considerably more complex in the realm of the mental compared to the physical. But then, many things are 😊 – Rob
I really enjoyed this post! It gave me lots to think about.
Using your analogy... I think that from a mental health perspective, the trauma caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences can be likened to calluses that don’t heal or return to status quo. That is, unless one is shaped into resilience by positive influences such as a teacher who understands and encourages you, or a trusted friend who you can confide in, or a mentor who believes in you. Having these types of support systems, I believe, can mitigate the long-term effects of trauma. I can also highly recommend building one’s Wisdom Skills with training in Positive Psychology with an instructor like Dr. Shani Robins. I found his course invaluable in achieving optimal mental health.
Thanks for the kind and generous comment! So, right, I will talk to the other Fossils about this one and I’m looking forward to trying to think through it. But I really like the idea that you allude to here that the same stimulus might be a psychological insult or a psychological challenge depending on the tools that one has to bring to bear. So a resilient person might improve when given critical feedback, taking it as a challenge, while someone who is less skilled might just, well, be insulted, if you see what I mean. There’s a lot to think through here and my sense is that the challenge/insult distinction is considerably more complex in the realm of the mental compared to the physical. But then, many things are 😊 – Rob