I learn as much from my clients as they learn from me, which is why my life is richer and more fulfilling because of the work I do.
Recently, a client returned to treatment to focus on an eating disorder. I had already successfully treated her for an anxiety disorder some years ago. During the session we discussed how prevalent anxiety is in today’s world. As she is some years older than I am, I
asked her why she thinks this is so and she explained to me how she was raised.
“We were taught,” she said, “to be nice, to be sweet and to be polite. We were told not to pay attention to our feelings. As the country grew more prosperous after World War 2 and people had more free time, these values were questioned, and feelings began to be important. We learned to label our feelings, but not to manage them. Then the internet was invented and so much information became available to us; too much information for one person to process. This constant flow of information is causing anxiety and
we do not have the means to cope with it yet.”
I thought this was an interesting perspective, especially from a person who had lived many years before the internet. She went on, “In Judaism, there is a Shabbas, a time of rest which lasts from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday where all technology is turned off. This is a chance to get a break from the constant stimuli around us.”
I realized as she spoke that she was identifying a coping mechanism that is thousands of years old – taking a break from work and spending time with friends and family individually. I understood how this rest and chance to socialize can reset the nervous system and give us a fresh perspective for the week ahead. I know Shabbas is not a response to the internet and social media, but perhaps we can look to the past to learn how to navigate the future. We can choose to take a break from technology and spend time with people who replenish us. We can work to create our own community of people who wish to do this with us. In that community we
will have the chance to learn and grow from one another, just as I did with this client.
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