My friend Carolyn Thomas posted this video, produced by the Cleveland Clinic, on her blog, Heart Sisters. She asks “What if hospital staff could read our minds?”
I didn’t know what to expect, I was afraid it would be something awful like that Mel Gibson movie “What Women Want” where a sexist man could read women’s minds. Ick.
Practice Kindness
But this video blew my mind in its direct simplicity. Not a word is spoken. The quote from Plato above was taken from the first comment to the video on YouTube. Among the gifts, I feel my chronic illness gave me was the understanding that a person can look perfectly fine on the outside while dealing with incredible pain both physical and emotional on the inside.
This little film does that one better. It includes the complexity of conditions: from sadness and grief to elation and joy. What we think people should be burdened with can be very different from what is actually weighing on them or lifting them up. See it for yourself.
via Heart Sisters, one of my absolute favorite blogs:
♥ All about women and heart disease – our #1 killer – from the unique perspective of Carolyn Thomas, a Mayo Clinic-trained heart attack survivor
♥ Information for the general public, heart patients or their family members, health professionals, and all students of the heart.
Editors Note: Since writing this blog pos,t Dr. Aletta has written a book that may be purchased through Amazon. It’s titled: “7 Rules For Living Well With Chronic Illness” and can be purchased for Kindle. We anticipate that the print version will be ready in the fall of 2019. With compassion, wisdom and irreverence, Dr. Aletta shares her seven simple rules to help you live with chronic illness and thrive!
Elvira G. Aletta, PhD, Founder & CEO
Executive & Personal Coaching, Individual & Relationship Counseling
Life gave Dr. Aletta the opportunity to know what it’s like to hurt physically and emotionally. After an episode of serious depression in her mid-twenties, Dr. Aletta was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease that relapsed throughout her adulthood. While treatable, the cure was often as hard to bear as the disease. Later she was diagnosed with scleroderma, another chronic illness.
Throughout, Dr. Aletta battled with anxiety. Despite all this, Dr. Aletta wants you to know, you can learn to engage in life again on your terms.
Good therapy helped Dr. Aletta. She knows good therapy can help you. That’s why she created Explore What’s Next.
Today Dr. Aletta enjoys mentoring the EWN therapists, focusing on coaching and psychotherapy clients, writing and speaking. She is proud and confident that Explore What’s Next can provide you with therapists who will help you regain a sense of safety, control and joy.
716.634.2600 | draletta@explorewhatsnext.com
Thanks so much, Dr. A, for linking to my site and to this lovely little film.
When I first saw it, it reminded me of a speaker I once heard who asked us to imagine how we might treat others around us during our day-to-day lives if everybody wore a little sign around their neck that told us something about their lives, like: “My teenager’s on drugs” or “Just found out my husband’s having an affair” or “I have heart disease”.
Wouldn’t we, the speaker asked, be a bit kinder to strangers if we knew these things? Trouble is, everybody does wear these signs, she said – but they are invisible to us.
Just like Plato said . . . ♡
As a psychologist I am supposed to be extra sensitive to the invisible. However, I can forget and need a refresher sometimes. People are forever surprising me in their ability to forgive, endure and thrive. When that happens I fall in love with people and my profession all over again.
Thank you, Carolyn, for your intelligence, insight and generosity. You are awesome!