The Truths About a "Normal" Life

Hey there. I'm Diane Griselle, also known as Silver Disobedience. Welcome to my podcast. So today I want to talk about the idea of living a normal

life. You know, there was time, I'm sure for a lot of us that we were so excited about the craziness of life. And then in some ways we craved what we thought was going to be normal. But is there such a thing? Let's dive into this for a couple of minutes. No, for much of my life, if I

was ever asked how's it going, my rote response was always the same. My go to answer was fine, everything's fine. Why did I say it was fine? Certainly things sometimes were fine and at other times they certainly weren't. But either way, my answer was fine, everything's fine, it's all good, how about you?

The reason I did this in my younger days was because I thought complaining was a weak and ugly trait. That's number 12, which is probably the bigger one. I was so afraid to admit that anything in my life might be anything other than fine, because on some way I thought

this reflected on me failing. You see, the problem with insisting on what we think is normality or that all is fine at all times when it might actually be quite otherwise in the moment, is that somehow deep down we're feeling very dissatisfied with accepting life as it is in the particular moment, which is problem full. Because problems happen and they happen to everyone's lives. Don't let social media fully on that. Believe me.

Everyone's got some problems happening, you know, And I think

the most important thing is to realize that having problems, which is quite normal and probably the most normal thing about a normal life, is that we all have problems. Having problems doesn't mean that we're weak, unlucky, less than, or otherwise inadequate compared to others. If you believe others to be problem free, it's probably because you're comparing your inner feelings to the facade of normality that we also often try to present.

And this is really important because, you know, I think one of the biggest downsides of social media is everybody looks so happy all the time. Sometimes I just want to post the pictures, you know, when you're like me because that's how you feel and you have those moments. And it would help us all if we saw a little more of that. But again, everybody wants to believe that everyone else's life is going so great, so therefore mine must be going great. Or if it isn't going great, I

can't let anybody know. So in reality, let's get back to

reality here. Because believing that you should never have a problem, or worse, that your problems are always a sign of weakness. Wow, that's painful. That's really painfully isolating. That's a terrible thing to do to yourself. And why is it extra terrible? Because you can't really have any conversations in depth if you're afraid to acknowledge that sometimes, hey, life bites. It just bites. Sometimes it bites hard. But here it is. It is what it is, and it isn't always fine.

In fact, sometimes life can be immensely painful.

So at those times when life is normal, which actually means full of trials and challenges, here's the good part. It's those trials and challenges that are part of normal everyday life that hold the potential for us to reach new understandings of our personal capabilities. We can embrace these personal challenges and during along the way, we can also embrace others and ask for their support. This isn't week, it's how humans actually show their strength and fortitude for living.

I'm Diane Grisell, this is the silver Despedience podcast. I want to thank you very much for tuning in and I really hope you hit the subscribe button and come back for more.