Clarity
Finally, you get to the view of yourself that others have always had. The topography of your idiocies and your screw ups are as deep now as your facial wrinkles. That's clarity. When you wake up in the middle of the night screaming "Holy Crap." That's real clarity.
Mellowing Out
As any premed student knows, an organism has to rest for a while, especially after more than five or six "clarity" events lest the organism turn into a dead one. Mellowing out is the manifestation of that self-preserving process. I'm going to be a smart alec and tell you there's a name for that. It's called the general adaptation syndrome, identified by Dr. Hans Selye. That's why we get sick after cramming for a test, or coming off a particularly stressful, clarifying event.
Tenacity
You finally get that you've earned every wrinkle, every fat pod and by Gosh, you're going to cash in, eventually, some day, when you feel like it. Time is on your side, yes it is. Kids cash in way too soon.
An increase in the capacity to empathize
What a gift. Then, in turn, you get to give. What a deal!
A decrease in your capacity to take a bunch of baloney from people, especially ones in your life you always thought you couldn't live without Yeah, even those.
Boundary setting experiments
This is the one of the best rewards so far. It goes with the first one, clarity--followed by the planned result--mellowing out (also above).
Or ask the guy who falls off the tower of a skyscraper how his day is going and he replies most of the way down, "So far, so good!"
So far, so good. Great days ahead!
Finally, you get to the view of yourself that others have always had. The topography of your idiocies and your screw ups are as deep now as your facial wrinkles. That's clarity. When you wake up in the middle of the night screaming "Holy Crap." That's real clarity.
Mellowing Out
As any premed student knows, an organism has to rest for a while, especially after more than five or six "clarity" events lest the organism turn into a dead one. Mellowing out is the manifestation of that self-preserving process. I'm going to be a smart alec and tell you there's a name for that. It's called the general adaptation syndrome, identified by Dr. Hans Selye. That's why we get sick after cramming for a test, or coming off a particularly stressful, clarifying event.
Tenacity
You finally get that you've earned every wrinkle, every fat pod and by Gosh, you're going to cash in, eventually, some day, when you feel like it. Time is on your side, yes it is. Kids cash in way too soon.
An increase in the capacity to empathize
What a gift. Then, in turn, you get to give. What a deal!
A decrease in your capacity to take a bunch of baloney from people, especially ones in your life you always thought you couldn't live without Yeah, even those.
Boundary setting experiments
This is the one of the best rewards so far. It goes with the first one, clarity--followed by the planned result--mellowing out (also above).
Or ask the guy who falls off the tower of a skyscraper how his day is going and he replies most of the way down, "So far, so good!"
So far, so good. Great days ahead!
