Being there for your kids - Embrace Your Rubber Band-ness

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

Rubber bands hold the key to our healing journey and mental health. Wait. What? Think about it. Rubber bands are so unassuming until you use them. Their use comes from their ability to stretch, expand, and gather essential parts. Does that sound like personal human growth to you? Ponder the rubber band with me. Blessings, Jon

I'm Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. Let me share with you today thoughts about rubber bands. Rubber bands are wonderful little objects, very functional, but usually taken for granted. We use them daily without even thinking about how they organize our lives. Mental and psychotherapy, also known as MPT, utilizes three well-accepted treatment strategies woven together intricately to create a tapestry of healing. Mindfulness, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioral therapy have all been found in research and in practice to have a profound impact on the healing process. Artfully weave them together and their impact is multiplied exponentially. In their healing journey, patients develop four growth areas with MPT.

They move from groupthink, which breeds insularity, to universality. They move from either or indoctrination to figuring out what's for real. They move from bias that breeds discrimination to human solidarity. And lastly, they move from polarized thinking that breeds discord to common ground thinking. To grow, patients must stretch themselves. Here's where I introduce the marvels of the common rubber band. I pulled out a somewhat large rubber band that got Allison's attention. So, Allison, tell me how this works.

What do you mean? It's a rubber band. Yes, I know, but indulge me for a moment. I'm trying to make a point. Okay. So, what do you think the function of this rubber band is? What can you do with it? Allison reached for it to pick it up. No, no, don't touch it for now.

Just think, what are the possibilities for this stationary, solitary rubber band as it sits there in front of you? Well, it's too light to be a paperweight, too plain to be artwork. I guess it just gathers dust over time. So, no real possibilities as it sits there. I agree. Now, what gives this solitary stationary rubber band? its function, its purpose for being. Okay, Doc, that's pretty deep for a rubber band, Allison chuckled.

So, how do you make this object functional in your life? Well, to use it, I need to put it around something so that it stretches to contain the object. So, this object, I pick it up and hold it limply in my hand, can magically hold something together or in place, but only if it is stretched. Allison nodded agreement. She got my point. As we encourage our patients to stretch their self-constraining boundaries of thought and action, they move from an insular life perspective to one that begins to understand the universality of our human condition.

Help your patients ponder rubber bands and learn to stretch themselves and soar on their healing journeys. For more on embracing your rubber bandness, find my book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life at Amazonbooks.com. If these comments start questions of your own, contact me through my website at www.orghumed www.com or email me at John Robinson 0.0 at Bellsouth.net. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson, licensed clinical psychologist, and author of Teachable Moments Building Blocks of Christian Parenting and my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life.

And this has been Teachable Moments. Blessings. Teachable Moment. Building blocks of Christian Parenting is available online at AmazonBooks.com and in local and national bookstores. More on Dr. Robinson at TMC-P-I-N-C.com.