(140) Bullying? How to Let Go of that Awful Moment (once and for all)

I was being taunted by three bullies, all using that awful sing-song (what's-wrong-with-you) voice.

I kept edging away, eyes on the ground, face burning.

As young as I was, I knew it was a lie: Sticks and stones... but words can never hurt me.

Decades later, I came across this quote: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt

And I thought, No! People can make us feel inferior and make us feel bad. Words do hurt, and all of those quotes, rhymes, and platitudes only help bury the truth of those feelings.

Bullying Buried

When emotionally hurt, too many of us fill our minds with thoughts that range from what we wish we had said or done to what we wish would happen to the abuser.

Those thoughts and the rhymes, quotes, and platitudes have one purpose: to help us stop feeling awful. Our body helps, too, by tightening against those feelings.

But is stopping those feelings of humiliation and weakness really helping us?

Letting Go of The Abuser

(once and for all)

The big problem is that those emotions do not stay ignored. They keep coming up, along with the negative thoughts they generate. In a very real sense, the abuser is still hurting us.

But each time we face those feelings, we are standing up to the abuser and releasing ourselves (by releasing those buried emotions).

Eventually, we will think about that person less often, not just because time has passed but because those thoughts and feelings are weakening.

And, yes, the time will come when they are gone, and we are free.

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