Appreciating “And”
Do you ever think if one thing is true then the other automatically can not be true?
This is called all-or-nothing thinking. The cognitive distortion that a statement is either all true or not at all true. I’ll give you an example. I made a mistake at work the other day and I had a brief thought of “I’ve learned nothing, I can’t believe I did that”. My first thought was to assume I was incompetent/stagnant in my growth. This made me feel so powerless. But then I stopped and challenged that thought. I put it on trial and investigated evidences for and against it.
The Bicultural Experience
I am a bilingual First-Generation Indian-American (partially practicing) Hindu woman. I, like a lot of your bi-cultural folk, am neither Indian nor American. I don’t belong to one group. I’ve been rejected by Indians for being too American in my accent, personality, preferences, lifestyle etc. I’ve been rejected by American’s as too Indian in the other aspects of my personality, preferences, and lifestyle etc.
Not having a larger group to anchor ourselves to can make us feel lonely and untethered. We all have a need for belongingness. But where do we belong if both part’s of our identities reject us as not being like them enough?