Have you ever tried to be like someone else?
I saw 2 teenage girls walking along together, talking away to each other, and noticed that one of them seemed distracted by the difficulty she was having walking in her shoes. They were ‘heels’ and she appeared to be struggling with them. 👠
I smiled to myself. I recognised her desire. She wanted those shoes, and despite their apparent lack of comfort, she was going to wear them because she thought they were the bees’ knees! 👌
It reminded me of school regulation shoes. I hated mine with a vengeance 😠, they were ugly. I had to have them because they were school regulation and the other style I preferred didn’t fit my feet properly.
But some of the other girls in my class wore non-regulation shoes and got away with it. I wanted to be like them – so much so that I persuaded by mum to buy me some under the premise they weren’t for school. They weren’t comfortable because they didn’t fit my feet properly, but I wasn’t going to be put off, just like the teenage girl struggling in her heels.
To me, trying to be like someone else was one of the ways in which I was figuring out who I was – not who others expected me to be. Trying things out and trying news ways is all part of how we learn. And yes, it can be really uncomfortable.😬
I encourage my clients to “try things on” when we work together as they’re also learning new things about themselves and new ways of perceiving and responding to situations that challenge them. It doesn’t matter if something doesn’t help, but it could make a world of difference if it does.
And I’m still ‘trying things on’ too, …and still buying shoes that are uncomfortable! 🤭