Member-only story
This Is Me Reminding You That You’re Going To Be Okay
The importance of empathy and reassurance in offering support during life’s challenges.
The past few days have been hard.
The other day I was curled up into a little ball on the floor, confused and lost because I was unable to find my way in life. I was crying because I was sad, and I was frustrated at my inability to figure things out. Some days are harder than the others, and that day was especially hard.
As I was lying on the floor, I thought of my time as a preschool teacher at a daycare in Maine, about how one day, this little two-year-old girl came running to me, bawling her eyes out. She could not tell me exactly why she was crying; I could not tell if she had hurt herself or if one of her friends had been mean to her.
She was shaking and sobbing with her eyes mostly closed. I put her on my lap and looked at her face and told her, “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.” As I gently rocked her, trying to comfort her, there was no way for me to know what had really caused her to cry.
After about 10 minutes, she started to calm down and looked at me with tears in her eyes. She was not crying anymore but she was still sad. She was unhappy with what had happened, and she was frustrated because she could explain the cause.
