We’ve all been there. Someone hits us with some news that just leaves us wide-eyed and unblinking. These shocking moments (WTF moments are what we personally call them) are few and far between but when they happen, oh boy do we need some time to recover. Today’s reading prepares us for some news that is likely to rattle, which got us thinking…are shocking moments only bad?
Rossi (2019) seems to think, in How to Handle the ‘Shock’ of Good News, that unexpected good news can elicit similar reactions to shocking bad news. It takes a moment to realize that the information is good and what it means for the situation. So much of our life is spent analyzing and anticipating what is to come. We are taught to plan and prepare and to consider the what ifs and the just in case scenarios. That’s how we aren’t surprised, we aren’t sidelined. And yet…the shocking moments still happen.
Okay, so shocking good news is awesome. Once we recover, we are hit with that serotonin allowing for smiles and squeals of glee to commence. But when the news is bad, where does that leave us? Boyes (2018) outlines what happens and how to respond in What is Psychological Shock? And 5 Tips for Coping. The main thing is taking a moment. We don’t have to respond right away to something someone tells us. We don’t have to react in any specific way. When we go through a shock we certainly weren’t expecting to react in the way that we do, and that is okay. It’s going to take time for our actual body to return to its normal state. That’s right, it isn’t just our mind that goes through a shock, it’s our whole body. So take a wide-eyed unblinking moment, it’s only natural.
Image by Irina_kukuts from Pixabay
Midnight Crab Oracle 