There For Each Other - YoM Day 352

Eleven months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 352. Yesterday, I talked about finding glory in the struggle. Today is a new day.

"Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it's there if you look deep." - Tarji P. Henson

As I've been practicing mindfulness and gotten in touch with myself, it's also helped me in understanding others. Wherever I go I can sense the emotions of others without having to look at them. It's not just their tone of voice, body language, or facial expressions either. You can just tell. In Japan, they call this "kuuki wo yomu (空気を読む), or "reading the atmosphere". As I've learned to become more socially aware it's become more apparent that everyone is suffering in their own way.

We all have problems that we go through. Some things eat away at us on the inside, others are minor annoyances. Maybe we have worries that keep us up at night or insecurities that keep us from reaching out for our dreams. Whatever the case may be, each of us carries a burden and yet at times it seems as if we're more divided than ever as a society. While it's great that we've branched out and diversified ourselves, humans are pack animals. We like to "stick with our own", so while we've made progress by creating new groups, this has also created many divides among us. Politics, religion, philosophy, class, etc. While we are all part of the same human race, we are all very much different from one another that it can be easy to forget how similar we still are.

I was bouldering with a friend yesterday and we both went through a pretty bad breakup. She asked me what ever happened between my ex and I (we all went on a vacation together so she is friends with her) and she told me what happened with her ex. It sucks that things didn't work out, but it was a nice moment for us to connect and relate with each other that felt really nice (despite the topic being kind of sad). But the act of having someone there to console and relate with you helps remind us that nobody is perfect and that we shouldn't beat ourselves up over every little thing. The past is the past and we move on. Having people there with us on our journey makes the hurdles we face not so intimidating.

Through empathizing with others I've learned that my problems are actually pretty normal and I don't need to overthink them. That's not to say I should just let them persist. Not at all. However, I know that I shouldn't be ashamed of them. While people may have their differences, we all have this in common. In the same way that I'll be there for my students when they need me, I can be there for anyone who needs a helping hand. It doesn't matter who they are because regardless of our backgrounds, we're all in this together.

How can you be there for the people around you?

                                                                                                              Peace

All for one, one for all. Together we are stronger.