Posts Tagged With: being kind to oneself

Day 4179: Don’t expect you from them

“Don’t expect you from them” is a piece of wisdom I often share with my patients. Because I don’t expect them to remember it, I have that saying up on my white board at work.

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Whenever I hear somebody say “I can’t believe so-and-so would act that way. I would never do that!” I’ll say “Don’t expect you from them.”

If you do expect people to act or feel the way you would, you will probably be disappointed and resentful, and you may conclude negative assumptions about the other person, including “this person doesn’t care about me.”

Don’t expect you from me if you would offer more explanations or illustrations at this point, because I’m not going to.

I don’t expect me from you, so I have no idea how you’re going to react to the other images I have to share with you today.

Don’t expect you from them, including the Daily Bitch.

I have no expectations about what I’ll find when I search YouTube for “don’t expect you from them.”

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Don’t expect you from them but you can always expect gratitude from me for YOU.

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism, Psychotherapy | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Day 883: Be Kind

Yesterday I saw this sign, at work:

Okay, folks, we’ve got a great blog post for you all here today. I can already tell that you’re gonna love it.

I’d like to be kind, right now, and explain how that last paragraph kind of quotes the introduction my 17-year-old son Aaron speaks  in the one-act play “Serious Economics.”

If you know nothing of “Serious Economics” — which Aaron wrote and directed and kind of starred in with his kind and good friend Cameron —  please be kind enough to read my blog posts from two and three days ago.

Now I shall be kind enough to show you the other kinds of photos I took, yesterday, from the office of social worker Erin, who seems to be kind to everyone:



     

Erin and I both know that being kind to others is very important, but being kind to yourself is just as important. Therefore, I shall now be kind to myself and do what makes my heart sing:

Be kind enough to take a look at “Serious Economics,” taped by a high school senior Aaron barely knows, who was being very, very kind last weekend.

I shall kind of conclude today’s kind post with one more “be kind” story.

Two days ago, Aaron sent the video of “Serious Economics” to N. Gregory Mankiw, the real Harvard economist featured in his play. Was N. Gregory Mankiw being kind when he quickly emailed Aaron back the following?

Thanks. But how did you know I keep a large nuclear warhead under my dining room table?

If you have thoughts about that or anything else I kind of presented in this post, please be kind enough to leave a comment below.

Kind thanks to all the kind folks who made this kind of post possible, including Erin, Aaron, Cameron, Luke (who was kind  enough to put “Serious Economics” on his smart phone Saturday night), and  N. Gregory Mankiw. And kind thanks to you — of course! — for being kind enough to visit, today.

Categories: personal growth, photojournalism, pride | Tags: , , , , , , | 38 Comments

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