Over Sharing or Deep Sharing
A privileged moment — be aware of that privilege.
When I read this quote, I was just wondering about oversharing. I just searched on google and most of the initial pages were connected to the ways to avoid oversharing. Or Oversharing is normally defined as,
Overshare : to tell people too much personal information about yourself:
Ex 1: She has a tendency to overshare on Facebook.:
Ex 2: People use their ever-present mobile devices to share, or overshare, every mundane detail of their lives.
Surely the image understands oversharing in quite a different way, or we are doing the sharing (whether it is oversharing or deep sharing or whatever you call) with a certain person whom consider as safe. Or the word “safe space” is very important. I want to keep to this understanding of the word for the rest of the article. Oversharing in a safe space.
I feel privileged many people do overshare/deep share (however that person wants to call it) with me regarding their lives. And I am sure, it has a lot to do with my vocation as a Jesuit and a priest. Two situations where I encountered this oversharing/deep sharing the maximum is in the context of the sacrament of reconciliation/confession and spiritual guidance/conversations. And I wont forget the many close friends who do it — but one aspect with close friends is that we both know each other well.
Whatever is the reason or the context, I feel oversharing/deep sharing as a deeply privileged moment for me, where someone is ready to be vulnerable in front of you. Something only two persons have seen (God and self), they are willing to open up before me.
Surely it brings a lot of joy; but I dread it too; why? When someone opens up, with such nakedness before you, you can only behave like Jesus (not forgetting by any means that you are not Jesus; this is very important to keep in mind). You are invited not to judge, but to invite that person to a deeper sense and reality of that person’s life; to acknowledge their emotions as valid; to remind them that person God loves them and the worth of the person is nowhere lost despite all the struggles, pains, abuses and difficulties of life. All these without belittling any of their struggles, but seeing it with an empathetic heart.
I know I am not perfect here; occasionally things could have been done in a better way; And in connection to this, what I hate is, written in the image below (a sharing where counsellor forgets that dimension of being non-judgemental).
I am not saying all Christian counsellors are like this, and this may be the worst example. But let’s avoid this pitfall, as much as humanly possible, especially with those, who dared to be absolutely vulnerable in front of us.
NB: This story is dedicated to so many of those people (many who became friends) who trusted me deeply.
