My Best Bilingual Life

Do you ever have a hard time accepting reality?

Uh, no, Nikki. I'm not delusional, thank you.

I hear you, but...are you sure you're not having a little trouble accepting things as they are?

Try this on for size: it's the end of the day and I haven't gotten everything done that I needed to. I haven't been lazy or slacking off, but I just didn't have time to get to everything on my list for the day. However, it doesn't feel acceptable to me to put things off for tomorrow. They're important and need to get done just as much as other things. So, I tell myself I'll just have to stay up late and finish them. I'll take a little break and eat dinner, then get back to work...

...hours later, I've stayed up late, but I haven't gotten much farther on the things that needed to get done. My brain and body are tired, but stress is keeping me awake. I'm starting to feel overwhelmed, and helpless. I look at my phone and see a news update about something terrible. I start worrying about that, too. When I finally get to bed, I feel like I've wasted time, added more problems to my plate, and would have been better off just calling it a day and getting a full night's rest to tackle everything fresh tomorrow.

What is happening here?

It's not that we are delusional and denying reality, it's that we are resistant to it. We are resistant to accepting things that we don't want to be true.

Read More