RELATABILITY
My word for 2021.
Compassion is the ability to feel for someone outside of our own scope. It’s seeing/feeling the depth of their emotions USUALLY because we have been through something similar and thus can relate.
My goal is to stay “relatable” in the sense that I don’t forget what it’s like to be who I was. It is really hard. It’s been 7 years since I left abusive patterns, and I’ve grown so much that sometimes looking back, it feels almost foreign to me to be/feel/see that time and place where I was suffering so deeply and so deeply terrified to make any kind of choice. I NEVER thought I would be so removed from my past that I would stop relating. I understand that I chose these challenges to help people work through their own, but I’ve found myself forgetting many of them.
I can’t help people if I don’t stay relatable. I need to remember EVEN IF AND WHEN I have not actually experienced their struggles in this life! That is so huge!
Why do you think it takes us 1,000 lives to accomplish this Earth journey? Because we have to experience everything first hand to relate and understand what others are going through. We essentially don’t know how to see/feel what others are going through unless we’ve been there. We may think, “It can’t be that hard; they could be overreacting, just work harder, just make better choices.” We try to see things as we are, not as they are living them. Spirit has taught me this a million times but never have I really made the connection in relatability to our daily experiences without directly being explained the difference. Meaning I’ve seen no real reason to implement it in my everyday living.
We often face the same thing just so next time around, we can say, “I’m sorry you went through that; I know what it’s like.” We become MORE LOVING UNDERSTANDING AND COMPASSIONATE when we can relate. Spirit is asking us to relate without the experience. To simply acknowledge another’s struggle with compassion and understanding its absolute validity. Try to see it as they explain it. Don’t try to one-up them, don’t compare your situation and life. Don’t tell them they could do better. Instead, try to feel their mindset, pain, and perspective. Be in it, without fear. Let it overwhelm you. Then simply acknowledge it. We don’t need to fix it or help them out of it. Tell them there is a better way. Just feel and let them lead. Let them choose where they are and simply acknowledge it without judgment.
To me, that is choosing relatability before relatability chooses you. Through compassion and not experience. Something we could all use more of.
Happy new year!
💜Jessenia 💜
copyright protected Jessenia Nozzolillo 2020