Restarting without Losing
To give a context, I’ve just finished a course about Psychological First Aid (PFA) and here what I want to talk about…
I’ve been interested in Psychology since I was at university and kept afloat. Psychology has always been a fascinating topic to talk about, and I like talking about human existence as a person — including journey, memory, emotion, and identity.
For having such a wonderful yet complicated journey, I have been wondering how every person defines “existence”. The existential checklist we have is perhaps completely different. However, not everyone talks easily about the number of tabs open on their screens, the number of processes they’ve been running, or the number of wistful songs they’ve saved on a Spotify playlists.
I could relate to the song I played on my way home, which reminded me of many heartbreaking scenes from my life. I repeated many times, until I reached my sadness limit. It may have happened to someone else out there, I knew — we have been there and done that — but, life must go on, aren’t we all?
Through the PFA course, I learned, again and again, that we can button down ourselves, let it go dark, and wait. Understand the complex reactions and come back stronger. We can restart, but we don’t lose — we never quit.
Get wabisabi’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
One of the existential checklists that I must be more concerned about is the self-regulation, particularly as an easily dysregulated one — that’s completely tricky. That’s why I think Psychological First Aid helps us to create a sense of safety.
In the Window of Tolerance concept, people who can define assertiveness are described as being in the optimal zone. They tend to be more able to think and feel flexibly and effectively. Yes! We want to be placed in the optimal zone.
But how do we start?
Applying self-grounding — consisting of 3 PFA principles: 1) Look, 2) Listen, and 3) Link — is also possible to lower the stress response. PFA supports individuals in facing distress by observing and asking. That’s why what matters most is the awareness of one’s own needs. Therefore, we can accept reactions and decide what kind of support we need.
Besides self-grounding, once we know what we need, it subtly leads us to be aware that applying self-care is a must. For a couple of years, I was implementing various self-care practices, like journaling, coloring, doodling, any many more. So many coping style mechanisms that may works for you, please do! I wish you all a great time to self-care and come back lighter!
We may fall apart, relapse over and over again, but we try to keep functioning by doing one small thing.
cheers!
