Comments on: illness? normal? i just want to feel good. http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/ making lives better, making better lives Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:02:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: mental health: canadian voices » change therapy - isabella mori http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/comment-page-1/#comment-63145 mental health: canadian voices » change therapy - isabella mori Thu, 10 May 2007 02:42:23 +0000 http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/#comment-63145 [...] personal crisis management real life experience: bipolar and medication illness? normal? i just want to feel good You can also bookmark this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos [...] [...] personal crisis management real life experience: bipolar and medication illness? normal? i just want to feel good You can also bookmark this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos [...]

]]> By: Widows Quest » Carnival of Positive Thinking http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/comment-page-1/#comment-11458 Widows Quest » Carnival of Positive Thinking Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:20:12 +0000 http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/#comment-11458 [...] isabella mori presents illness? normal? i just want to feel good. posted at change therapy. [...] [...] isabella mori presents illness? normal? i just want to feel good. posted at change therapy. [...]

]]> By: healthybpm http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/comment-page-1/#comment-9821 healthybpm Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:41:23 +0000 http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/#comment-9821 The 'norm' differs so much from person to person and culture to culture and even on a gender level, that sometimes you feel lost in this world of politically correct opinions. Thank you for your interesting insights. The ‘norm’ differs so much from person to person and culture to culture and even on a gender level, that sometimes you feel lost in this world of politically correct opinions. Thank you for your interesting insights.

]]> By: Bonnie Wing http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/comment-page-1/#comment-9806 Bonnie Wing Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:55:18 +0000 http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/#comment-9806 Good question… I’m not an authority, only an amateur psychologist, but I certainly have my opinions! If one considers a ‘vignette’ to be the description of our lives individually, I think ‘normal’ could be whatever state we transform ourselves into in order to be accepted by other individuals, groups, etc. ‘Unique,’ on the other hand, is what every person is before they transform themselves to the norm of their choice. We each are unique… and just like snowflakes, each different and yet all the same. What a pity we generally would not accept a theory that everyone’s uniqueness puts them into a group where being unique is the norm. If we could accept that, we wouldn’t have to ‘change’ ourselves, we could just let ourselves ‘evolve’ as we learn, instead of suppressing ourselves so that we can continue to fit into the norm. Good question… I’m not an authority, only an amateur psychologist, but I certainly have my opinions! If one considers a ‘vignette’ to be the description of our lives individually, I think ‘normal’ could be whatever state we transform ourselves into in order to be accepted by other individuals, groups, etc. ‘Unique,’ on the other hand, is what every person is before they transform themselves to the norm of their choice. We each are unique… and just like snowflakes, each different and yet all the same. What a pity we generally would not accept a theory that everyone’s uniqueness puts them into a group where being unique is the norm. If we could accept that, we wouldn’t have to ‘change’ ourselves, we could just let ourselves ‘evolve’ as we learn, instead of suppressing ourselves so that we can continue to fit into the norm.

]]> By: isabella mori http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/comment-page-1/#comment-9766 isabella mori Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:31:39 +0000 http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/#comment-9766 thank you for your insightful words, bonnie! i was particularly impressed by how you meld acceptance and empoerment in the very last part, "if i can’t change the negativity then it must be a part of my vignette and i can choose to participate - or not." you refer to your life as "vignette" - i feel very similarly. our individual lives are these little windows into what you call "the big picture", a little like a holographic image that contains the whole story, yet at the same time utterly unique. (hm, now how do these two ideas of "unique" and "normal" relate to each other?) thank you for your insightful words, bonnie!

i was particularly impressed by how you meld acceptance and empoerment in the very last part, “if i can’t change the negativity then it must be a part of my vignette and i can choose to participate – or not.”

you refer to your life as “vignette” – i feel very similarly. our individual lives are these little windows into what you call “the big picture”, a little like a holographic image that contains the whole story, yet at the same time utterly unique.

(hm, now how do these two ideas of “unique” and “normal” relate to each other?)

]]> By: Bonnie Wing http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/comment-page-1/#comment-9718 Bonnie Wing Mon, 29 Jan 2007 07:49:10 +0000 http://www.moritherapy.org/article/illness-normal-i-just-want-to-feel-good/#comment-9718 Interesting to think that we can be guided into these “different” areas of normalcy by family, friends, classmates, co-workers, church groups, and those in positions of authority. Some of these we follow there, some we misinterpret so we find our way there on our own, some we are trying to escape from so we run there blindly. We can also be born into these alternate ‘normal’ areas… something wrong with our genes, or our nutrition. Or forced into these areas by our environment eg the weather and SAD, eg living in a prison or a dorm environment. We are born with a sense of survival, so that will further push us to conform to these alternate normals. And yet it is all by choice, we all make that decision to be guided or to run, or to conform, or to ‘find others who are different in the same way” and therefore who can support our normalcy. Alternately, we can choose to stand up for ourselves, choose to rejoice in ourselves no matter what others may think, choose to suffer or even die rather than do something we know or believe is wrong. And there is that word ‘believe’, that takes us full circle into that first paragraph again, where we are guided by others, and so on because of what we believe. So where does it all end. That is the scary part to me. I have developed my own sense of normal and not many others fit into my ideas, so in my eyes there are not many normal people. Aha! You see, I’m okay after all! And I think that is the key, to feel that we are okay, in whatever state of 'normal' we are. How do I survive my occasional bouts of negative emotion? I try to place myself into the big picture. Like the robin getting eaten by the cat, or the Eskimo freezing to death on the ice floe, it’s just nature, just the way things are, and for me that is an affirmation that I have my own little vignette to live out, and if I can’t change the negativity then it must be a part of my vignette and I can choose to participate - or not. Interesting to think that we can be guided into these “different” areas of normalcy by family, friends, classmates, co-workers, church groups, and those in positions of authority. Some of these we follow there, some we misinterpret so we find our way there on our own, some we are trying to escape from so we run there blindly.

We can also be born into these alternate ‘normal’ areas… something wrong with our genes, or our nutrition. Or forced into these areas by our environment eg the weather and SAD, eg living in a prison or a dorm environment.

We are born with a sense of survival, so that will further push us to conform to these alternate normals.

And yet it is all by choice, we all make that decision to be guided or to run, or to conform, or to ‘find others who are different in the same way” and therefore who can support our normalcy.

Alternately, we can choose to stand up for ourselves, choose to rejoice in ourselves no matter what others may think, choose to suffer or even die rather than do something we know or believe is wrong. And there is that word ‘believe’, that takes us full circle into that first paragraph again, where we are guided by others, and so on because of what we believe. So where does it all end. That is the scary part to me.

I have developed my own sense of normal and not many others fit into my ideas, so in my eyes there are not many normal people. Aha! You see, I’m okay after all! And I think that is the key, to feel that we are okay, in whatever state of ‘normal’ we are.

How do I survive my occasional bouts of negative emotion? I try to place myself into the big picture. Like the robin getting eaten by the cat, or the Eskimo freezing to death on the ice floe, it’s just nature, just the way things are, and for me that is an affirmation that I have my own little vignette to live out, and if I can’t change the negativity then it must be a part of my vignette and I can choose to participate – or not.

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