Why are we so scared to ask for help?
As humans we never like to ask for help, ever ( in my experience). Personally I’ve never wanted to ask for help from anyone. I suppose it depends on what you’re asking for. Ask yourself…What are you asking for?
Even as children we see it as embarrassing or silly to put our hands up in a classroom and say ‘I don’t understand’. When actually, not understanding is a huge part of life, from the minute we enter the world to the minute we leave it. It’s how we learn and how we grow. The process from not understanding to understanding is literally life. When we go somewhere new we don’t fully understand how to get there or sometimes where we’re even going. It’s the same when we feel an unfamiliar emotion, at first we don’t understand it, so learning how to deal with those emotions is daunting to say the least. The more you do something the more familiar you are with it. It’s the same for emotions. Once you become familiar with certain thoughts or feelings you can gradually pick up on what triggered those feelings and thus, you can gradually move forward.
Asking for help is so often associated with weakness. Struggling to complete that task at work, you’re stupid or unfit. Not sure how to cope with the built up stress and close to breaking point, you’re deemed as weak. When in fact the reality is, asking for help is such a minor thing, at least it should be. Struggling with work load? Just ask someone to take a little off you or ask if it’s possible to have an extension. Can’t cope with the stresses of every day life and you just feel like breaking down? List all your major stresses and see if there’s any you can get rid off. Prioritise what is worth stressing about and you’ll soon realise that the things you’re stressing about really don’t matter. It’s like that quote that goes ‘if it won’t matter in 5 days time/ 5 weeks time/ 5 months time/ 5 years times then you probably shouldn’t stress about it’.
Mindful Ness 