The Power of Acknowledgment
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Let’s talk about acknowledgment. We all have a core, biological need to be seen and heard. After all, that is how we first enter this world: crying and demanding our needs be met without any hesitation. That is how we survive. As we get older, acknowledgment continues to be important when we gash our arm or break a bone, and it becomes just as essential as we develop complex emotions as adults and experience difficult life events and painful relationships.
More recent brain research tells us that, when trying to heal or “move on” from a painful past event or trauma, we often do not need to relive every single detail. What is typically needed instead, is acknowledgment of the emotion that was felt at the time and that likely continues to be experienced since the event occurred. This is one of the reasons why avoidance is such a painful behavior, and often causes more damage than we realize.
So, the next time you find yourself avoiding either something you feel or avoiding what someone else said or tried to express to you, consider acknowledgment instead. Acknowledge your fear. Acknowledge your grief. Acknowledge your excitement. Acknowledge that you hurt someone else. We do not have to say “I’m sorry” to have repairing and healing conversations and experiences. Our emotions are incredibly useful tools if we take time and learn to see them.
Written by Dr. Lacey Wright, PsyD