We recently watched a video of Brené Brown on Oprah’s Life Class,
where she is giving a six-week course on vulnerability, self-help, and other
social work issues. In this course she spoke about helping others and accepting
help ourselves. The main point she made was that if we are not willing to
accept help from other people without judging ourselves, then we are not able
to help others without judging them. If you think that you are weak or
incompetent for allowing someone to assist you, how can you not apply that same
thought to the people that you are offering help to?
As a social
work major this will be something to always keep at the forefront of my mind. I
know that when I am forced to ask for help I sometimes feel embarrassed or
uncomfortable. I think one of the main reasons is that I am a woman, and the society
we live has made me want to be able to do everything on my own. I fear the
looks I may get or the thoughts that people will have if I go to them for
assistance. I think one way to combat these thoughts would be to think of the
people that I work with at Meals on Wheels and More on a weekly basis. I would
never think of looking down on them for needing these services that help them
so much. We need to realize that we are all human, and that there are times
when we just can’t do it all.
Observation:
In my Foundations of Social Justice we spoke about the ways that sexism can
discriminate against not only women, but men as well.
I really like this comment and this will be something I will carry on with me as well. I use to be one of those people who was afraid to ask for help because I didn't think people would help me and because I am use to doing everything on my own. I always helped other people with their needs and rarely asked for help for mines. After a while I had to build up the courage to just ask for help. Asking for help is not as bad as I thought because people are always going to need help, we can't do everything on our own.
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