To think this is a very privileged view on life

[HermioneWeasley]

Saw this shared on social media today and my immediate thought was “aye, tell that to the women being raped to death by the Iranian national guard.”

am I a miserable cow, or does this represent an incredibly privileged and narrow experience of life? Is it unbearably trite?

I suppose it's mostly true if you view those that way. I don't really read twee stuff like that and it doesn't apply to all situations. Maybe it gives hope to some people which can only be a good thing. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that all hope isn't lost and we can start again. Positive affirmations are just trying to help and they don't offend so I do t really understand your angst.

Listen to the survivors of the holocaust. The documentary were Prince Charles has portraits commissioned is a good short one. They say the same as your meme that you are against. There's hope still in Turkey, they aren't giving up. Endings can be beginnings, absolutely and so on. It's often asked why they continue to have babies in war zones, Syria etc, babies are hope for the future. Read accounts of survivors, you'll change your mind.

Also sometimes something can be a terrible experience but you can find a narrative that helps, it made you stronger, you learned something from it or you used it to help others.

Other times not and it's just shit being heaped on you, it doesn't make you stronger it just fucks you up so you've got even more shit to deal with further down the line. There isn't a point to it that anyone can see. There might be better things coming or it might just be more shit.

Its designed to lift and keep people focused on the positives. As someone who naturally sees the glass half empty these reminders are great for my mind. This is a classic example of people's own narrow minds not being able to comprehend past theor own minds

I think it's a shortened version of "you've got this in hand/under control". As in, you can do this, don't give up.

And as a victim of DVA the devestating chaotic end absolutely was the start of a new bright and beautiful beginning. They may not mean shit to you but to some people they have deep meaning

Think you're looking to be offended to be honest.

Those that are truly truly suffering then no amount of 'great advice' or 'motivational thinking' is going to help. It's not privileged to try and motivate yourself but equally when you are having the darkest of times, it may not be of any help.

I got hit by a massive health crisis in my early 30s after being just married. It meant I may not have had kids, required debilitating treatment and will shorten my life span. I very much tried not to see it as hopeless and absolutely clung onto the positives (one door closes). I didn't see it as twee at the time-I saw affirmations like this as key to surviving my crisis with my mental health intact.

I do now have children but still have my illness and consequences of them. Every day for me with them is a miracle in my eyes. And I don't think I'm 'privileged' in that view.

We all have our annoyances but there's some some very touchy people on here; I dread to think how some MN users, navigate life without feeling a constant sense of rage over absolutely everything, it must be utterly exhausting. 🤷‍♀️

Surely a spiritual coach is just as luxurious as many of the other things people with relatively easy lives do - nail salons, massage, even a personal trainer. The women in Iran or Turkey are no more likely to put out a call for a spiritual coach as they are for gel nails.

Unless you are planning on stripping all our lives down to the bare minimum or this coach is finding to go help in Iran, then I can't see why you'd pick on this one person (whose business is named on the pic).

Precisely!

I never found twee crap like this much help when I was very seriously depressed. And I have a fair amount of skepticism towards people like Julia who I worry may be taking money off people who are struggling based on no greater understanding of the human condition than can be expressed via meme...

That's exactly the sort of post I'd want to see when I need some perspective on my struggles. No, my life isn't as bad as others but sometimes one needs a motivational pastel infographic to cheer up/get over small issues

Amen

Virtually everything on FB is rubbish, I find it weird that people are vexxed by a pretty lame meme.

FB is mostly adds and twattery. Yawnfest.

I think you’re being a bit too cynical OP.

The graphic isnt aimed at the audience of women being tortured and raped in prison cells.

It’s aimed at people struggling with ‘hard days’

The days of the Iranian women in those prisons are well beyond ‘hard’.

I think there is a woke obsession with calling people out on their privilege, whilst those signalling the privilege siren are blindly privileged themselves. It's all subjective.

It all seems very toxic positivity. Mean it’s good to have perspective but life’s hardships and how unfair it is, well, it’s not a competition and more of a sliding scale. We are allowed to have shit days and we are allowed to admit we are struggling.

I don't think that this stuff is for depressed people, it's more for difficult times.
I knew people who were in concentration camps and a few who were part of the Biafra crisis and they'd agree with those sentiments. If you give up hope in starve etc situations, you die quicker. When the Chinese used the dying rooms for newborn's, they told people who came to observe/research to not let the babies see/sense them because they clung on to life longer. Call it a false sense of hope, but it does keep us alive that bit longer. Your mind/thought process is a powerful tool. Depression blocks that. Antidepressants are used to get is to a place were we can use it again.

I can assure you, it's not the mindset born of privilege; exactly the opposite. It's the hard-scrabble grit your teeth through shit mindset born of surviving struggle, disadvantage, harm, loss, pain.

I don't think it's meant for people who are dead

This has just given me the biggest laugh in ages, thank you @AnImaginaryCat 😄

Re. the sentiments of Julia the spiritual coach... I think it's all about context. If horrible things are happening to you and someone blithely tells you that "you've got this" etc, of course you're going to want to throw things at them. But in general, resilient people have been shown to cope better with some life tasks, events, problems etc. If you are not naturally resilient, you might choose to practise resilience using things like this (positive affirmations, etc). So it's not for everybody but some might find it useful 🤷🏻‍♀️

It depends on your situation. ‘This too shall pass’ is a nice sentiment when anxious and stressed about something. ‘There’s always hope. Everything’s solvable’ goes down like a dose of the shits when you have an incurable chronic health condition.

Exactly.

I have a debilitating illness. I can't do everything I want. Steroids have made me balloon to the point I don't recognise my reflection. I will almost certainly die before I get old.

I could sit and wallow or I can seize all the positives and make the most of it what I have. I have a choice.

And I see so many inspirational people who manage this when navigating through much harder, almost incomprehensible suffering

I think if anyone had said any of these to me, while I was struggling with TTC (and in the end had to give up) I would have shoved the nearest thing either down their throat or up their arse.

But the amazing thing with social media, is you can block people and they dont even know

Cross post though @RudsyFarmer ...

The meme is titled, 'Reminder for hard days'.
Is being raped by the Iranian national guard having a hard day? you be the judge of that.

I don't think it's meant for people going through absolutely horrendous things.

I currently have cancer, none of that will help me, however I also got pissed off yesterday when I got a hole in my trousers, despite it being a non event compared to my cancer.

My child died, I still got annoyed when my taxi showed up late a few days later and I missed my train, despite it being nothing compared to what I was going through.

We don't always have go to the absolute worse case scenario in everything, we can have feelings about all sorts of things. Some people find comfort in clichés.