Emotional and Immune Systems
As we prepare for a holiday season, and the flu and cold season, tending our immune system and emotional system seem like appropriate self-care. Many of us will attend large and small family gatherings that invoke both sweet and difficult emotions and put us in contact with potential viruses.
A friend and therapist recommended the podcast, Mindfulness Exercises Episode #024 Emotional Wellbeing with Dr. Gabor Maté. It is short and to the point on so many topics related to our wellbeing. Dr. Gabor Maté speaks to healthy anger and the boundaries that protect us, choosing guilt over resentment, and the misnomer of compassion or empathy fatigue.
Dr. Maté reminds us that our need and desire for connection is above all else. We will sacrifice almost everything for relationship, particularly in childhood. We require connection to survive.
We are also judgmental by nature. Dr. Maté encourages us to not suppress judgment, because it is an automatic response. Instead, he asks that we notice our judgments of others and self and remain curious about them in order to discover what it is we are rejecting within ourselves.
