With all that we have seen and heard in the news over the last several days, I think it is really important as a counselor to remind people about taking care of themselves and loved ones during times of grief and tragedy. While we must acknowledge and deal with the negative feelings that arise such as grief, anger, or despair. We must remember that there are also positive feelings and we need to feel those too, especially during trying times.
I have been looking for positive things to focus my attention on. This does not mean that I have my head in the sand and refuse to see what is going on in the world around me, but because of who I am and the work that I do every day helping others, I CANNOT stay in a miserable, angry, and near riotous state forever.
I found myself doing things like looking at old photos from high school. That made me laugh as I looked at our hair styles and the way we dressed. Is there anyone else that wore MC Hammer pants like I did? LOL!
That lead to me listening to popular music groups from that era. You know like New Edition and Al B. Sure. Watching a few of their videos on YouTube had me thinking that I could bust a few old dance moves! NOT!
But my final strategy was to turn to my spirituality. Because in the end, if we don’t have hope, we have nothing. So I prayed, and prayed more, and prayed more that the just God that we serve has not, will not and CANNOT forsake us!