You might say that your circumstances have shaped you and made you who you are today.
Well, it would’ve been inspiring if you meant it that way.
But if who you are today meant seeing yourself as having no power to change your circumstance, you might see yourself helpless and a victim of it.
But did you know that you do not learn helplessness?
Passivity in response to shock is not learned. It is the default, unlearned response to prolonged aversive events and it is mediated by the serotonergic activity of the dorsal raphe nucleus, which in turn inhibits escape.
Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience
If helplessness is something we’re wired to, it isn’t an excuse to remain that way.
If helplessness is not learned, then the opposite is also true, that helpfulness can be learned.
Christianity has taught us about helpfulness in the guise of hope — hope upon the Lord, strengthening us that we will see it through regardless of circumstance.
And hope bears a forward action, a sense of power that we won’t stay where we are now, that the change we seek is possible.
There are so many good things that could happen in every dire situation we can think of.
Why?
Because we are not as helpless as we think we are.
We can do something.
We can create something.
We can make ourselves ready for the future.
jessa 