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Something Worth SharingThe Story Behind I have previously had the great honour of working on a project for Dr Bruce Perry - an incredible American psychiatrist, who is currently the senior fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas. I watched a video last week in which he was chatting to Oprah Winfrey, and shared a wonderful quote by Abraham Lincoln: “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better”.
The reason that Dr Perry was talking to Oprah is because they co-authored a book called ‘What Happened to You’ (see my gift to you below). The idea of it - and the Lincoln quote - is that what we experience, and are conscious of, is the result of something else. There is always a story behind. When we seek to understand that story, the dislike turns to kindness and empathy. It doesn’t mean we need to become best friends with someone that’s possibly being mean, just that there is a reason for the behaviour we are experiencing. Too often we can jump straight to: ‘what’s wrong with you?’ or more commonly, ‘what’s wrong with me?’, but in both cases, there is a story that explains that something happened to them - and to us. Very often a bully was first a victim of bullying themselves. Remembering that there is always a story behind what we see and experience is incredibly valuable to all concerned.
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