I Don’t Want to Think About it, Do You?

On living in denial

I’ve been thinking about denial lately, how it helps us, how it hinders us.

Denial helps us get through the day. We can’t do our work or take care of our families if we’re thinking of our pain, grief, or financial worries. We need to shelve these issues sometimes. Denial has a valuable purpose. We need to function. We need to detach from thoughts and feelings in order to get on with life.

This is normal and healthy. We can’t always be thinking of the hard stuff because for one, life wouldn’t get done, and for another, life wouldn’t be any fun. We need to sometimes shelve that pain in order to allow ourselves pleasure and joy in life.

We have all had difficult experiences in one way or another. And we deal with it, or bury it, and move on. This is just what we do.

It’s a way of keeping us safe, protecting us from what we feel are dangerous emotions or sensations in the body.

Creating safety for ourselves in the wake of trauma

Some of us have experienced trauma…