Shutting Shame Down Summary

This week’s article entitled, “Shutting Shame Down” by Jessie Sholl addresses a problem that every human being deals with at some point in their life, generally even more than once. Shame, an emotion that is often confused with guilt and embarrassment, has become such an average occurrence that no one appears to address the issue. The most we do now is keep our heads down and ignore it until the moment passes. As someone who has experienced shame far more often than I would like to admit, and in the strangest of circumstances, I found this article to be illuminating. Although it would probably difficult to remember, I believe that, after a considerable amount of time, the techniques suggested in this article may be the key to dealing with the shame we tend to struggle with on a day to day basis. One aspect of the article that was surprised to read
I suppose that the stress that came with hiding his true self was enough to cause his adverse physical reaction, as stress often does has negative consequences when dealt with in the incorrect fashion. I also found it interesting that the article did not reference shame in an inherently unfavorable viewpoint. It is not hard to notice that our society tends to look at people who are shameful as somewhat antagonistic. To clarify, if someone is experiencing shame, outsiders often assume that it’s because they’ve done something to deserve it, which is usually because they have made an illogical decision that makes them somehow less of a person because of it. For example, they decided to cheat on a test, not due to the fact that they didn’t study the given material, but because they suffer from serious test anxiety that leaves their minds blank no matter how much effort they put into the subject beforehand. It is rare that the school looks at all sides of the problem prior to