Awkward Moments | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Awkward Moments | Previous Challenge Entry
By Vicki GRECH
01/16/12
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES

I honestly cannot remember the last awkward and/or embarrassing moment I had in my life, however, I can certainly remember many from earlier days in childhood! But when we do have these somewhat awkward moments we depend mostly on those around us to allow the incident to pass with as little fuss as possible. This makes it much easier for us to cope with the pain of embarrassment. When you think about it, embarrassment is more-so the fear we have of other people's reactions more-so than our own. Most of us see embarrassing moments as some sort of failure, we can change that by simply doing as a stage performer does; get passed the incident as quickly as possible, usually without a word being said, and simply carry on as if nothing at all had happened. The following quote I believe describes perfectly how embarrassment should be perceived - "embarrassment belongs to a disorder called perfectionism", (Theresa J Borchard, Psychcentral.com).

Celebrities call these times "bloopers", and for them too are very embarrassing moments in their careers and lives. However, it is how we choose to respond to any event that will make all the difference. Awkward or embarrassing moments are like any other event in our lives, be it positive or negative. We are not perfect and many times we will slip up. But if we see these slip-ups as learning opportunities we will embrace them rather than fear them. For Christians, who have great faith, they know (or should know), that everything is for a reason, mostly an opportunity to learn something. Many times in Christian life we are taught; "humility teaches most swiftly", and it certainly works on just about everybody, including me!

Society in general seems to finds more situations of embarrassment than are really necessary. For example; many people find rejection embarrassing, but why? I believe it is through the incidence of rejection especially that we can learn most things about ourselves. Don't get me wrong though, it is not in every case that the rejection may be a direct result from our personality, skills, words, actions and/or behaviour. However, either way, we are still provided with a wonderful learning opportunity, be it that of ourselves or the other party involved. I see far too many cases that make plethora of an incident rather than keeping the situation in context; inevitably, it makes it worse for ourselves what could otherwise have been little more than a passing moment. We seem to be a rather superfluity society, that makes mountains out of mole-hills. When I have these awkward moments I try to get people to laugh with me, not at me, that way we all share in these great moments to be embraced and shared. A guaranteed smile every time!

For the many people who suffer the pain of embarrassment try to realize these are opportunities of learning, embrace them. Don't allow your emotional state of fear to rob you of valuable life experiences designed to assist with human spiritual and physical growth. After-all, life is truly a journey, what would be the point of jumping on and off and missing out on the rapids, these are truly the most fun parts! It is our lack of faith within ourselves, that places ourselves in awkward or embarrassing situations. Remember, embarrassment is a fear that is within ourselves and the state-of-mind we create. Its amazing how we can sit and laugh at these situations on TV, if only we could adopt this humour for ourselves and have a good ol' laugh rather than cry.

On a last note, I would like to add that; as a freelance writer over many years I have dealt with many rejection just like anyone else. However, what I have learned is that my responses make the difference to how I perceive these incidents over other writers. Other writers I have found seem to suffer painfully from rejection, and I try to encourage them to embrace these rejections as leaning opportunities. These opportunities of so-called (or perceived), embarrassment are great tools for promoting growth not only as a writer, but also as an individual. Each and every instance of our lives is just another page in our book, a book about our journey through life to be shared with many for the primary purpose of spiritual growth whilst God assists, observes and treasures each of us along the way.

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.