Thus, we can start to acknowledge and learn from whatever is going on inside us. Freed from the need to defend our mistakes, we can actually look at them, and get beyond the need to repeat them. But these are hard things to learn alone. It really helps if someone accompanies us along that road. Sometimes you will be the receiver of that acceptance and sometimes the giver.
Healing is a beautiful word and a powerful metaphor for positive change.
Here are five of the deep learnings that I see going on in almost all supportive and empathic conversations. In paying attention to someone in a calm, accepting way, you teach that person to pay attention to themselves in just that way. In caring for others, you teach them to care for themselves and you help them to feel more like caring about others. The more you have faced and accepted your own feelings, the more you can be a supportive witness for another person who is struggling to face and accept his or her feelings. In forgiving people for being human and making mistakes and having limits, you teach people to forgive themselves and start over, and you help them to have a more forgiving attitude toward others.