I haven’t flown anywhere for quite a while. It’s been even longer since I’ve taken a flight with a movie. I heard a comedian interview in which, as comedians do, they were talking about airline travel. One of them said the in-flight movies always made him cry.<\/p>\n
The other guy said “Me, too!”<\/p>\n
Oh my god!<\/p>\n
Me Three!<\/p>\n
The most banal movies will leave me with dripping cheeks. What is it about stories while I’m traveling?<\/p>\n
Something about being carried by a machine going somewhere I had already decided to go, knowing that I have no decisions to make–it lets me be totally open. I can let the feels happen.<\/p>\n
Even in ordinary life I think I am a rather sensitive person. I think I’ve got my feet on the ground and I can handle what life throws at me. Then my friend surprised me by calling me high-strung.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I am. Maybe more than I realized.<\/p>\n
Recently I have been pegging the needle on the sensitivity meter. Some stuff was going on and I was really struggling.<\/p>\n
Someone said to me, “You need to get a thicker skin.”<\/p>\n
I was embarrassed that this person thought something was wrong with me, and grateful for her advice. At that moment I would have given anything to not feel so stressed out.<\/p>\n
Somehow, I needed to let the stuff that was getting to me not get to me.<\/p>\n
I appreciate my sensitivity. I feel things deeply. The rocks thrown in my pool go down a long way before they hit bottom.<\/p>\n
I am not shallow.<\/p>\n
And yet this depth wasn’t working for me. The stuff thrown at me hurt all the way down. How could I get out of my misery?<\/p>\n
Of course, my first step is to ask the Internet. “How do I grow thicker skin?”<\/p>\n
My first click was to this helpful article: “a thin-skinned person may reject any suggestions or sensible interpretations that are inconsistent with his self-defeating and inaccurate view of the situation.”<\/p>\n
I don’t want to be that. I like myself best when I can laugh and see many sides to the story. My stress and fear was zooming in on the worst possible interpretation and clinging to it.<\/p>\n
There are other ways to see it. One possibility is also just to stop thinking about the scary thing at all and find something else that is pleasant to ponder.<\/p>\n
I started to change the story and get my feet underneath me. And I also tried to give myself a break. After all, who wins if I defeat myself?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I haven’t flown anywhere for quite a while. It’s been even longer since I’ve taken a flight with a movie. I heard a comedian interview in which, as comedians do, they were talking about airline travel. One of them said the … Continue reading