Helping someone else always helps us. And reaching out to others takes our focus off our own difficult situation. That’s often the best medicine of all.
“The best thing I can do for my brain is to find a person in greater pain than myself and to offer her my hand. If she takes it, I’m inspired to stand strong, so I can pull her out of her funk. And in that process, I am often pulled out of mine.”
Therese Borchard
Sometimes we don’t think we can help anyone because we are feeling so weak ourselves. I know when I started my first R.A.D.I.C.A.L Women group (Rising Above Divorce In Confidence And Love), I felt unbelievably unprepared for the task. I was hardly getting out of bed myself on some mornings. In fact, I was afraid we might just all sit down around the table and start crying. Well, we did cry some, but we also laughed. We all took courage in the fact that we were all there, and we were all interested in getting better, and we would all help each other any way we could. I heard in a lecture by Dr. Holly Allen recently that we learn best from those who are just a little farther along in the journey than we are. Three-year olds learn from five-year olds. Middle schoolers learn from high schoolers. Young adults learn from those a little farther along life’s path. It’s true about divorce recovery, too. Even though you seem weak yourself, you can share things you have learned anyway. And helping others makes you become stronger, too. Stepping out gives a courage of it’s own. When you open your heart to others, people needing help will come out of the woodwork. Your admission will give them the courage to say they need help, too, and that circle of encouragement just keeps growing.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11
