The last few weeks in my life have been beyond stressful and overly emotional. No matter how much you think you are prepared to deal with both stress and emotions, I don’t think you can ever truly be ready to appreciate the toll they can take on you.
Emerging from the experience of my Dad passing away is going to take time. How much? I don’t think anyone can put a time limit on this. One of the most difficult aspects of facing the reality of my Dad not being with us, was not being able to have an actual conversation with him this week. Sure, I had a number of one-way conversations this week with him, but it certainly wasn’t the same. Yes, this is something I’ll need to adjust to, but it’s not going to be easy.
If anyone of you have someone that inspired you or was perhaps your muse, you will be able to comprehend the struggle I am having since this person is no longer here for me to engage with. Of course, I have other people in my life who I can talk to, but very few of them were at the caliber level of my Dad. He was one of the few people who completely understood and fully supported me without any judgement both emotionally and intellectually.
As I am going through the grieving process, it is therapeutic for me to write about how I am feeling, and to have an outlet to express myself. I realize I am fortunate to have this outlet, and I can’t imagine how others cope with the type of feelings I am having. So, thank you for indulging me with my written emotional expressions, and being by my side right now.
During a conversation I was having with a family member last week, they made a remark that was in pure alignment with how I think. Their statement was based on an observation relating to the emotional and physical support our family was receiving during this difficult time period. What they expressed was how amazing it was to see that our family was surrounded and supported by such awesome people. I completely agree with this sentiment, and it’s what makes it possible to look forward knowing my Dad won’t be a part of our daily life. At least not in person.
When I started thinking about how did our family become so fortunate to have such an amazing collection of awesome people in our life, it came down to a few factors. The first factor was that our family is a very kind family, and my parents modeled always being gracious and non-judgmental of others. Another factor was that my family seldomly asked for support, but yet would always be one of the first people to help someone else. In essence my family modeled the importance of having compassion and appreciating aspects of other people, ones that potentially others don’t see.
Being a compassionate person my whole life is something that my family instilled in me and my siblings. I have intentionally passed this down to my own children, and have also modeled this type of behavior in my professional life too. In fact, I can’t imagine behaving any other way. Even during really difficult time periods such as the one I’m in right now.
If you are curious about how to go about including more awesome people in your life, I have some suggestions for you about how to go about doing so.
- This will require you to tap into your emotional intelligence, but it will be well worth it. Consider the first time you met everyone currently in your life. Did you automatically have a good feeling about them? Be honest, perhaps you didn’t.
- If you didn’t have a good feeling about someone, have they changed and become a better person? If not, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate whether they need to be part of your life.
- Consider a situation when you needed support. Which of your friends or family members were there for you?
- People have different capacities for helping, so try not to be too judgmental on people who can only provide certain levels of support (e.g., emotional, physical, spiritual).
- Think about how you have helped someone else during a time they needed your support. What were you able to offer them that was comforting to them? Perhaps this is what you will need at some point?
- Don’t be intimidated to express in advance what type of support would be best for you. For instance, some people need others to be with them, and conversely, others might need more alone time.
- What makes the people in your life awesome? Are they qualities you let them know how much you appreciate them today for? These are likely the qualities that will be highly desirable and applied when you especially need them. Or, that will help you when you come across a new person to consider including in your life.
- Don’t ever think you don’t deserve to have amazing people in your life. We all deserve this, and this is one of the aspects of what makes our lives so meaningful.
Thank you for all of the incredible heartfelt advice I have received over the last week about how to cope with the loss of my Dad. All of it was truly meaningful, and I feel very fortunate to have so many awesome people in my life.
TAGS: #People #Family #Friends #Leadership #Motivation #Communication #Advice #Tipsonfindingamazingpeople #Supportingothers #Personaldevelopment #Awesomepeople #Howtofindawesomepeople #Management