Bruises

We’ve all likely walked around with a bruise. That part of our skin feels exposed and uncomfortable.

In this day and age, we don’t walk around with physical bruises as much as as our ancestors did. Instead, we deal more often with mental ones. This could be because we’re facing a difficult situation, awaiting an important result or just stuck in circumstances that has us feeling insecure about our capabilities.

When I feel bruised, I know I’m more controlling than usual, more annoying than usual and more “on edge” than usual. It doesn’t feel pleasant. As a result, I don’t radiate pleasantness either.

I’ve learnt that there’s no easy solution to overcoming a bruise. We have to give it time. Until then, it helps being aware of the feeling so we can upfront with ourselves about it and try and deal with our reactions more patiently. A few guilty pleasures and more rest definitely doesn’t hurt.

We should worry if such phases last longer than a few days at most or a couple of weeks at a time in extraneous circumstances. If they do, it might be time to make a wholesale change in some part of our lives.

But, that aside, I think of bruises as normal service. It is part of being human and we learn a lot about our ourselves in the process of dealing with them.