Change=Hope!
"Facing what is real opens the heart to grief, which somehow opens the heart to love even more deeply." - Richard Rohr
Up until now, we've probably painted a pretty grim picture of what life looks like when you are not facing what's "real", as the quote above mentions. You probably know that life intimately...feeling irritable, blowing up when you don't mean to, yelling at the kids, zoning out on social media or with video games, feeling constantly nagged by your wife and picking fights with her just to be alone, or worse getting the silent treatment from her. You know that this is not who you are or how you imagined your life to be but you're not sure how to do things differently.
Therapy has a lot of potential benefits that you may not have considered. First, it is a safe and neutral place to talk about how you're really doing; there's really no place that you can be as brutally honest as you can be in a therapist's office. Second, you get a chance to take a step back and look at your patterns of behavior that may be contributing to some of your current discomfort and unhappiness. Third, you may be given feedback about things you haven't thought about before and learn some things about yourself that will help you make the changes you are so desperately looking to make before everything falls apart.
What might those changes look like, you ask? Well, that's really up to you! What are your goals? A deeper more loving and open connection with your partner? More quality time with the kids? Time to pursue some of your old hobbies? Maybe a more fulfilling role at work or just more balance between work and home life? Sometimes, we can get caught up in the notion that if we can just achieve certain things in our lives, then we'll finally be happy. Maybe you think the answer is a higher salary, a different job or career path, a new house or car...all of these things may temporarily provide solutions yet in the long run, if you don't look at the deeper issues and face what's "real" inside of yourself, then it's not likely that you will find any lasting comfort or satisfaction in the things you are chasing after. When you are wiling to take the first step on the journey of self-exploration, you may find that what you've been looking for all of this time cannot be found externally. But first, you have to get "real" about what you thought was going to make you happy or the expectations you've had of yourself, your life, and the people around you. In doing this, you may encounter grief...the loss of an ideal, expectation, belief, or dream. But by allowing yourself to feel the grief and work through it, you might find the space to imagine a new reality, one where you and the people around you can dare to dream and to live purposeful authentic lives. You may even get all of those things you'd been striving for before, without feeling like you are forcing it or grinding the gears to get there.
If this sounds appealing, we urge you to give us a call to set up a consultation with one of our therapists at 813-434-3639. We look forward to hearing from you!
