Helping people hurts at times. It hurts because the same
thing that makes us great at helping others-empathy-also makes us more
vulnerable at being hurt. I believe in people. I believe in the good in
everyone and sometimes that results in my being hurt. This is where we can
learn a thing or two from Drew Brees*.
Drew Brees? Really Heather? Yes really. Not only Drew Brees
but football players in general. You see, Drew wears football pads to protect
him from being hurt when/if he gets sacked (zip it Saints haters). Not only does he wear football pads, but he
also wears a helmet. Each part of his protective equipment has a particular
purpose and protects certain parts of his body. We need to wear our own type of
football pads to aid ourselves in not being hurt.
My friend (and bad ass) Ursula wrote a blog this week
about being a MF
Monster. In it, she stated that one should “find your clan”. Yes. Who
protects Drew from getting sacked and hurt? His offensive line. Our clan can
serve as our offensive line. Our clan can protect us from when life tries to
knock the hell out of us.
Another bad ass friend of mine, Josh, recently wrote a blog
that spoke to me as well. He writes about the importance of ignoring the
naysayers that try to “zap you dry and steal your sunshine”. This is another
part of our protective pads. Ignore the critics that want to see you fail.
Focus on yourself and your fans. I can assure you that you have fans.
We need to be aware
that we need football pads instead of full-on body armor. We sometimes need
that protection to keep us from being hurt but we don’t need to be completely
hard. After being rejected or hurt, it
would be easy to give up and stop attempting to help anyone ever again. But, I
won’t. You won’t. Wearing our football pads helps to protect us while also
giving us the protection to continue reaching out and helping others. It gives us the protection to get knocked
down, get up, and play another quarter.
*I used Drew Brees because I am a HUGE Saints fan. Anytime I
can combine my love of the Saints and
mental health advocacy, I will.
Another great blog! No need to protect our full being but pads for certain parts. I'm glad to have amazing relationships in my life to protect me when necessary and to tell me when it's okay to take off the armor.
ReplyDeleteThank you ma'am!! We can protect ourselves so that we can continue to help others. We may get knocked down and hurt at times but we can add our protective factors and pads to keep us healthy.
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