With physical and emotional challenges alike, many of us are programmed to power through, instead of asking for help. Whether our resistance is due to a belief that needing help is a weakness or that we’ll burden the person we ask, stubborn determination to figure things out on our own, or any other reason we choose to struggle, it’s a limiting habit. I can think of no better time to break it.
I used to love to figure minor website tech stuff out on my own; successfully figuring out basic CSS code when this is not one of my skill sets provided a feeling of accomplishment. But people need emotional support now, not three years from now when my site looks the way I want it to. And while trying to correct minor glitches today, I created major ones. So I finally cried uncle.
Asking for help led to better results than I could have imagined. I learned that the subscriber plugin I spent three hours trying to fix was actually working – what wasn’t working was my subscriber welcome email. My list of 20 ways to stay calm and strengthen your immune system was quite possibly the driest and most verbose thing I’d ever written. If someone had sent that to me, I would have stopped reading after two sentences. Or syllables.
Many people have at least a little more time on their hands now and are happy to help. Some even have an abundance of time, and only lack a clue what to do with it. If you ask for help, you might serve them as much as yourself.
And if it’s emotional support you’re holding back from, please reach out. Now’s the time to drop our resistance and ask for whatever type of support we need.
If someone doesn’t have the time or energy to give it, they can say no. Most people want to help, especially now. And each of us is perfectly equipped to do that, in our own special ways.
Let’s give ourselves and one another that chance. Asking for help doesn’t make us weak; that’s an old belief that does not serve us. It’s actually one of the strongest and bravest, not to mention smartest, things we can do.