I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen by them, heard by them, to be understood and touched by them.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of being truly seen and understood by others as a profound gift in relationships.
Virginia Satir's quote highlights the fundamental human need for connection and understanding in relationships. The greatest gift one can receive from another person is not material but rather the emotional validation of being seen, heard, and understood. This deep acknowledgment fosters a sense of belonging and nurtures intimacy in human connections, making it a cornerstone of meaningful relationships.
In practice
In a discussion about mental health, this quote can serve to highlight the importance of being heard.
Over the years I have developed a picture of what a human being living humanely is like. She is a person who understand, values and develops her body, finding it beautiful and useful; a person who is real and is willing to take risks, to be creative, to manifest competence, to change when the situation calls for it, and to find ways to accommodate to what is new and different, keeping that part of the old that is still useful and discarding what is not.
The message sent is not always the message received.
What lingers from the parent's individual past, unresolved or incomplete, often becomes part of her or his irrational parenting.
The recommended daily requirement for hugs is: four per day for survival, eight per day for maintenance, and twelve per day for growth.
Your responses to the events of life are more important than the events themselves.
Put together all the existing families and you have society. It is as simple as that. Whatever kind of training took place in the individual family will be reflected in the kind of society that these families create.
Now, should we treat women as independent agents, responsible for themselves? Of course. But being responsible has nothing to do with being raped. Women donβt get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they werenβt careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them.
No matter how much you know a human being, you don't know him enough.
All of us--all who knew her--felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her poverty kept us generous. Even her waking dreams we used--to silence our own nightmares.
Handshaking means, 'I don't have a weapon.'
If youve ever had that feeling of loneliness, of being an outsider, it never quite leaves you. You can be happy or successful or whatever, but that thing still stays within you.
Marriage is a school itself. Also, having children. Becoming a father changed my whole life. It taught me as if by revelation.
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