March 7, 2013

Strength and Fragility

On most things I am a middle of the road kind of gal. I see shades of grey where others see only black and white. I am uncomfortable with extremes.

Yet there is something I have noticed about myself. Something that was, and still is, somewhat confusing and distressing to me.

How can I have the strength it takes to walk the path I am with my husband and his poor health, and also feel so very fragile, insecure and vulnerable?

You know, I grew up in the talk show era, with Phil Donahue and Sally Jesse and Oprah. And now we have Dr. Phil. I bow at the altar of Oprah and her "live your best life" and "light bulb moment" mantras. I am not unaware of the idea of an inner child.

For some reason, though, I didn't really think I had one of my own. I naively thought events from my childhood hadn't been that big of a deal, hadn't effected the adult I've grown into.

But there are these triggers....and a pattern....and when you sit down with someone trained to see them and how they pertain to the bigger picture, you can see them too.

My therapist can so easily point it all out, like I should have known all along where most of my insecurities have come from. And when I think I'm pretty sure I know where they're coming from now? My fear of ending up totally alone? He says no, not really.

Yes to FEAR, but it's my wounded inner child that feels the brunt of it all. This is why I can have both the strength I need for Mark, but still feel insecure and vulnerable in other areas of my life. There is a separation between your adult ego and your child ego.

Yeah yeah, I'm psychoanalyzing quite a bit here. I find it fascinating. Especially about myself! That I still have so much to learn about myself at my age is amazing to me.

The most surprising thing I've learned this week is that I, Miss-Open-Book-Wears-Her-Heart-On-Her-Sleeve-Blog-It-Out-for-the-Whole-World-To-See-Give-the-Benefit-of-the-Doubt, have some trust issues.

I can rationalize till the cows come home that there's nothing to worry about. But feelings are not rational. They are your feelings and you will have them whether you want to or not.

The problem lies in when your feelings lead to irrational THOUGHTS. This is a huge issue for me. I have the ability to bury myself in irrational thoughts. Everything from having a sudden flash of one of my children being gravely injured, to being told Mark is dead, to losing my friends. Those thoughts feel like a sucker punch to the gut. I can literally lose my breath for a moment and immediately feel tears stinging my eyes.

But none of those things happened. I believe we call this anxiety, kids.

So yeah, I'm apparently a huge mess of a person. But on the other hand I'm not. How do these things work together to complete the picture of me? I haven't figured that out yet.

I'm working on it.....

No comments:

Post a Comment