Skip to main content

Growth Mindset, Trauma, and Guilt

We have these terms in education called "growth mindset" and "fixed mindset." Applied to a classroom, growth mindset is basically the belief that every child can learn and be successful at any subject. Growth mindset doesn't mean that everyone learns to the same degree at the same time in the same way, but it does purport that all people can learn with enough time and effort. It posits that everyone can make some type of educational gain in your classroom in the time they are in that room. Fixed mindset, in contrast, says that people are born with certain talents and capabilities, and that there are just some things they won't be able to learn and some things at which they will automatically be successful.

In other words, growth mindset gives a person onus. In fixed mindset, you have the luck of genetic draw and the things that happen to you.

Traumas are things that happen to you. You don't ask for them. You don't want them. They are not your fault. Because trauma comes with guilt, I will say it again for those in the back it is not your fault.

Traumatic experiences are things that you could not control. They cause feelings that are valid and need to be worked-through and explored. They change your life in ways you never expected. They draw an irrevocable line between the before and the after. And yet they are only part of your life story.

Often when you are traumatized, you are at the mercy of this trauma. It happened to you and you cannot control it and so now you are a victim. Being a victim can lead to a victim mentality. This keeps you from growing beyond the trauma and healing from the experience. It catches you up in the unfairness of it all. It causes you to lash out and blame others. It also keeps you blaming yourself. This victim mentality is clearly unhealthy.

Sometimes people make you feel guilty in order to stop you from falling into victimhood. They tell you that you have power, that nobody else is to blame, that it wasn't unfair. The trauma, therefore, could have been avoided if you had only __________. This third option combines in an unhealthy way the growth and fixed mindset. Although its purpose is to get you to grow beyond the trauma and avoid victim mentality, it actually pushes you further in an unhealthy direction.

Truthfully, the healthy thing to do is acknowledge the trauma, your feelings, and the unfairness of it all. It wasn't your fault, you did not choose it, and you would have stopped it if you could have. This is true. But it is also true that you can grow beyond it. That you don't need to waste time blaming others. That you are not just a victim. This is growth mindset related to trauma. You work through the feelings and you move forward. Yes, you couldn't control it, but now you can make gains and grow in healing.

In this the horrible things that happened to you can take their places in your life's story. It becomes a part of the story instead of the rest of the story. It becomes something that can make you stronger, not something that keeps you from moving forward and being your fullest self. It becomes a way to see and know YHWH better, not something that keeps you from Him. And in this you need never feel guilty for things that were never your fault in the first place.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Creation Isn't Waiting For You to Rule and Reign

There's this idea that creation is waiting for the sons of God to take their places and make the world what it needs to be, this idea that some day out there Yahweh will come back and take us to Heaven and reign from His Throne. Once we remember sovereignty and that we are One with Yahweh, we realize that we are the ones sitting on this throne with Yahweh. We also need to remember that time and eternity are One. Time is the instrument of Our growth, and We actually use it to grow eternity. Once we realize these two things, we can see that We are sovereign in our own lives and ruling and reigning from this throne right now. The instrument of Our dominion is Our choices. This is what Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 3 where he talks about how we each choose what materials to build our lives with. Some choose jewels, some choose clay. I, as the sovereign in my own life, get to decide what materials to build my life with. However, I cannot judge another's life. As each of u

How the Grinch Didn't Steal Anything

You know how the Grinch tried to stop Christmas from coming, and yet it came anyway? Nothing he did could stop Christmas, whether it be taking the traditions, the decorations, the gifts. He took away the familiar and the sacred, but those silly little Whos were able to recognize Christmas when it came anyway, though it had a different form than maybe it had had in the past. What is Christmas, anyway? We all know the story of how Yahweh sent His Son to the Earth as the greatest gift of all for mankind. He sent Him completely, not reserving or holding anything back, and no matter how King Herod or circumstances tried to keep Him from coming, He came anyway, in a place and form that nobody expected a King to come, let alone the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world. How many people try to stop the Love of Yahweh from overtaking them in their lives? For whatever reason--usually some form of fear or a misunderstanding that can manifest in anger or resentment--they flee from the Love

The Seven Circles of Katalambano

Katalambano is a Greek word, which I found in my Bible and which you can examine more  here . Of course, Yahweh is all that there is, so some of the idea of overcoming needs to be rethought. What are we overcoming? We overcome the questioning (mentioned in the blog post "The Trinity of Faith") and answer yes and amen to Yahweh. Katalambano means two important things to me. Besides "overcome," it is also used to mean "lay hold of" or "attain." It is the word used in Philippians 3:12 when it talks about pressing on to "lay hold of" that for which Christ Yahshua "laid hold of" me. It is also used in John 1:5 where it talks about the light shining in the darkness and the darkness did not "overcome," or in some versions "comprehend" it. It is through katalambano that we grow our Promise, attain a new portion of it, complete our creation. Everything that exists is 3, 7, and 12, so you might call this the se