Welcome to the Becoming The Change Podcast. Each daily reading focuses on a different quote on how we can best apply it to our own moral compass and one of the five areas in Social Emotional Learning: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision Making. Thank you for listening and we hope you consider subscribing to the podcast for future episodes.
Watch What You Say
“Saying someone shouldn’t be sad because it could be worse is like saying someone shouldn’t be happy because it could be better.”
-Unknown
Often times when someone is seeking us out we want to help. No harm, no foul in doing this. However, there are times when that same someone may be just looking to vent and needs us to just listen. Let me say that again: just listen. No comment, no feedback, no opinion. Just listen. It is imperative that we watch what we say when they are looking for that empathetic shoulder.
As today’s quote points out it is not for us to judge who should or should not be sad and that to go onto say it can always be worse because we are merely just speculating that things could be worse. We don’t actually have any idea nor do we know that what the person may be experiencing is the worst it can get. Remember it is not you who is experiencing this sadness. They are. And though what they may be experiencing something similar that you may have (ie like a death), we cannot ever express that we know what they are going through because it is their experience, not ours. The rest of the quote goes on to say that we shouldn’t at the same time say to someone they shouldn’t be happy because things could get better. Again we don’t know if this is as good as it gets for them. Let’s keep in mind that we need to think before we say something we may regret and make matters worse.
What does this quote mean to you and how can you apply today’s message towards managing yourself better?
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Special thanks to Todd Cluff for his music on this podcast.
A special thank you to Feedspot for recognizing the Becoming The Change podcast as one of the Top 10 Social Emotional Learning Podcasts on the internet. It is an honor to be amongst the other podcasts on this list as we all strive to make this world a better place.
Becoming The Change 