People Recount The Most Profound Thing Their Therapist Ever Said
Reddit user lilmizzvalz asked: 'What is a profound statement your therapist has told you?'
Whether it's in a traditional therapy session or not, we all need advice from time to time.
But sometimes during therapy, some truly profound statements may be made that the client will never forget.
Redditor lilmizzvalz asked:
"What is a profound statement your therapist has told you?"
Searching for Reason
"'You're trying to rationalize something said by an irrational person. You won't make sense from nonsense.'"
- A_Random_Lady
Intentions vs. Actions
"We judge ourselves by our intentions, but we judge others by their actions."
- codewarrior128
Unfair Compromise
"If someone can't or won't meet you halfway, that doesn't mean you go further. One-hundred percent of the time, that will lead to resentment."
- rainynotes
Negative Self-Talk
"Not profound necessarily, but she noticed I was very hard on myself and asked me if I would talk to others the way I talk to myself."
- suspicious_lobster6
"I was out with my little one, and I did something silly, so instinctively, I called myself an id**t."
"My daughter said, ‘Daddy, you’re very mean to yourself,' and now I think about that a lot."
- craptainbland
Simply Surviving
"She pointed out that a lot of the things I do or don’t do that I hate about myself are coping and survival mechanisms."
"They were important to surviving a s**tty upbringing, and now that I’m safe, they aren’t needed. Unlearning these traits/habits are hard. It’s not my fault, and I need to allow myself to recognize that."
- kmk89
"My therapist hit me with something when we were in that same vein. He said, 'You’re basing your way of living off the part of your life where you had no agency. You have that agency now.'"
- zharkus
An Overprotective Friend
"'Your anxiety is not evil or an enemy. It’s like an overprotective friend trying to keep you safe because it saw you hurt once. Don’t fight it; just prove it wrong.'"
- Laura5013
Be Proactive, Not Reactive
"'You don’t have to wait for something terrible to happen before you change your behavior.'"
- Olda**rollerskater
Constantly Growing and Changing
"'People are not finished products.'"
"It's really helped soften my outlook and attitude toward others and myself."
- yekirati
Level of Danger
"'Is this harming you or is this just uncomfortable?'"
"Not every difficult situation is harming us; sometimes it’s just a stretch, and those are uncomfortable. If it’s uncomfortable, it’s likely teaching you something and would be worth working through."
"I’m high-strung with anxiety, so this helped me calm down and look at difficult situations more objectively."
- CuriousTsukihime
Incompatibility Is Okay
"I never ever realized this before and it’s gonna make me seem like an id**t, but it was profound to me to hear, 'You aren’t compatible with everyone.'"
"I used to think that I could make a relationship work with anyone as long as the effort was there, but she opened my eyes to realizing that what makes someone special is when you both are compatible with each other because that’s actually a very rare thing to find."
- neoIithic
Breaking Generational Cycles
"Your ability to cut people off and self-isolate is a trauma response to never having anyone to depend on when you were young."
"I now understand why my parents were the way they were, and I no longer ascribe to them blame for my current mental state, and I am in the process of taking personal responsibility for my actions and not passing on generational trauma."
- Odd-Grapefruit4215
A Reality Check
"When I came back from Iraq, I was not in a good place. I was dealing with some serious PTSD, and started to withdraw from the world."
"Finally, I saw the VA was offering free mental health therapy for returning vets, so I gave them a call."
"The therapist came out to my place and we talked for a bit, and then he said something that made me think for the first time there was light at the end of the tunnel: 'You know, you're not half as crazy as you think you are.'"
"That one sentence helped me find my way back. I'll never forget that."
- Hewholooksskyward
Nice, But Optional
"Forgiveness of another person is not a necessity to move on, despite what people say."
"But you DO need to forgive YOURSELF for not being able to forgive the person who wronged you, otherwise, you’ll hold onto anger forever."
"Once you let go of THEM, forgiveness aside, your life is that much better."
- OkeyDokeyArtichokey1
Because 'Family'
"They pointed out to me, 'Many intrafamily problems boil down to bad manners.'"
- OpalWildwood
"I realized that my family is very good at maintaining appropriate social boundaries with other people but within the family interactions, they totally disappear. And we're supposed to put up with it, because FAMILY."
"Like, why do you treat your family s**ttier than strangers? How do we deserve less respect?"
- StickFigureSoul
Perpetual Worry
"Worrying about something makes you experience it twice!"
- jslay588
"My dad actually said this quote to me and it really resonated with me: 'Worrying does not relieve us of tomorrow's troubles; it only robs us of today’s joy.'"
- Life-Gazelle3499
"I like to tell myself, 'It looks like you’re writing a fanfiction again,' whenever I start imagining how something that could go bad might go and it starts to feel too real."
"It makes sense because what is fanfiction? It’s a made-up story that isn’t 'canon,' written by a fan imagining what they THINK will happen. That’s basically what every bad 'what if' you imagine in your head is."
"Or you can say that that scenario you just imagined is something YOU made up, which makes it fiction. It’s no more real than (name of the last fictional movie or show you watched). That helps me a lot, too."
- StreetIndependence62
It makes perfect sense that this is the advice that Redditors have held onto over the years.
All we can say, really, is we wish we could have all heard these and internalized them when we were young.
People Divulge The Deepest Thing Someone's Ever Said To Them
Reddit user Some_Being_Online asked: 'What is the deepest thing someone has said to you?'
We may not always realize it, but there is inspiration all around us, often from things we've read, watched, or heard in conversation.
Sometimes people really surprise us with the deeply profound things they say to us, and that message can be life-changing.
Redditor Some_Being_Online asked:
"What is the deepest thing someone has said to you?"
Invest in the Things You Care About
"The grass is greener where you water it."
- Acceptable_Cup_3015
Worry Less
"'Worry is not preparation.'"
- Big-Routine222
"My husband told me once, 'If you’re worrying about it before it happens, you’re putting yourself through the experience twice.' While I still worry about stuff, it’s really put it in perspective."
- caitlin-c18
Celebrate Life
"I stopped giving a s**t about my birthday when I was 27. I used to request off or at least the day after off to recover from the previous night, but I just stopped caring."
"Last year, an old lady at my job found out it was my birthday and surprised me with a card with money in it, the kind of way a grandma would."
"I tried to tell her it wasn't a big deal and give the money back, but she insisted, saying, 'You should always celebrate your birthday. You don't know how many you have left.'"
- Sol-Blackguy
Life Lessons for Kids
"Prepare your child for the road, not the road for your child."
- dvmdv8
"The way I heard was: You can't child-proof the world, so you'd better world-proof your child."
- CowBoyLaw
Not a "You" Problem
"A person's actions are a reflection of their character, not yours."
- YallMindIfIJoin
"Everyone is someone else and they’re all just trying to find themselves. Let them."
- bulitproofwest
A Challenge to Step Up
"'Yes, someone should do something about that. So who are you? A nobody?'"
"I have long struggled with feelings of inferiority and whatnot, that kind of helped out."
- Burning_Monkey
Live at Your Own Pace
"'Why tiptoe through life to arrive safely at death?'"
"Although you also have the opposite, 'I would rather be late in this life, than early in the next.'"
- liberaliar
Over Before You Know It
"When you're about to become a parent, the amount of s**t you get told is unreal. Parents can't wait to tell you, 'You'll get no sleep, you'll have no life, it's all changing nappies, etc.'"
"However, I was in a meeting with a guy at work, we were making small talk before the meeting, and I told him I was about to become a dad, expecting the usual."
"Instead, he just went really deep but really chilled and just went, 'You're about to have the most amazing thing happen to you ever, but never forget, they're not yours. You're just borrowing them while they need you but you need to get them ready to not need you anymore.'"
"The older my kids get the more I appreciate it."
- Educational_Act_6602
Processing Grief
"When my baby died and I was a mess, someone told me, 'I can’t imagine the pain you’re going through. I know your heart, expectations, assumed roles, and future memories have been broken. But to your child, they had a perfect life. All they ever knew was your love.'"
"I still cry thinking about it but it really did help. I know some may take this differently, but it was what I needed at the time."
- ballerinabaskets
Love with Nowhere to Go
"Grief is the price we pay for love. And it’s a bargain."
- khmergodzeus
"I’ve heard it slightly differently as, ‘Grief is love with nowhere to go.’ I like yours better."
- LB-Dash
The Power to Let Someone Go
"If someone you like doesn't like you back, as hard as it is, you have to let them go."
"If you truly care about them as you claim you do, respect them when they say their happiness is without you. Otherwise, trying to force it is now only about you, and that's not love or friendship."
- llcucf80
The Pain of Indifference
"It's not that deep, but I heard it as a sophomore in college (remember that hormonal swamp that is your late teens?) and it just floored me: 'The opposite of love isn't hate; it's complete and utter indifference.'"
- dragonfeet1
Sometimes Things End
"Something can be good, and also end, and that thing was still good. And it’s okay to be sad that it ended, too. But the idea that anything that ends is automatically less than this hypothetical eternal state of success, doesn't do us any good."
- yakuzamax
The Importance of the Journey
"All that you’ve gone through: the good, the bad, and the in-between have led you to exactly where you are now. You had to go through it all in order to be here, with me now."
- tvaldez19
This were powerful points that we could all learn from. It absolutely makes sense why these Redditors found these points to be so groundbreaking.
People come into our lives for a reason, for a season, or for a lifetime. And sometimes, the people who come in for the briefest of brief seasons can really completely change us as people.
It only takes a moment to leave a strong impression, and these people left impressions so vast that the recipient's whole lives changed after meeting them. What a role to play in someone's life.
u/vSpecky asked: