Was there ever a time when what your friend saw in a cloud, you could not see, no matter how hard you tried? Or maybe it was the other way around. You could clearly see a winged horse and you could not get them to see its head, wings and tail.
This is more apt to happen when you have different backgrounds. Different experiences growing up give you your own unique lexicon or set of shapes to draw on. You might see a cow and they might only be able to see a dog, and a really funny looking one at that.
If you have health concerns or chronic illness or whatever label you want to use, your perceptions might be different from those who haven’t shared your experiences. Your experiences shape you and how you see things.
Being understood when it comes to your condition requires that you consider the lack of information that others have. The general population knows a little bit about a lot of different things. A little bit of knowledge is not necessarily a good thing. Someone who knows a little may think that they know a lot. These preconceived ideas can limit communication and cause misunderstandings.
For example, most people have an idea that chemotherapy not something that they want to experience. They might know some of the side effects like hair loss and nausea. However, not having experienced it, or something like it, it is hard to really understand what someone is going through when they are going through chemotherapy treatments.
Maybe it’s not chemotherapy, maybe it is daily insulin injections, dialysis, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia or allergies that you have to deal with. Whatever it is, you have a unique set of experiences that others cannot fully understand. However, they can absolutely have empathy for and appreciation of what another person is going through.
Communicating what you are going through is a very personal choice. How much detail do you give? Who do you tell what to? There are some people you will want to share more information with and others you want to share much less information, if any at all. For those you choose to share with, you want to make sure that you are able to explain your experiences to things they can relate to. This will allow them to better understand and see your perspective. If they have never seen a cow, they don’t know what it is supposed to look like so they will not be able to find it in the clouds.
In business, information about your health is not something you are likely to share. Unfortunately, some people perceive being ‘sick’ as a weakness. Being viewed as weak is something you want to avoid in business. However, it is most definitely not a weakness. Dealing with being sick means that you are incredibly resilient and able to cope, that you are able to make it through, despite what you have to deal with. It is an indication of strength.
However, if your health issue relates to what you do, like it does for me, it is necessary to explain it. Knowing a bit about what I have gone through allows people to see that I do have an inkling of what they might be going through, that they can trust me to be empathetic and understanding That I will do the best I can to see what they see in the clouds.