Member-only story
The problem with prescriptive advice
It never works. All it does is annoy the receiver
I have learned so much that when I am struggling with something, I know what I need to do and so any advice that a person offers me isn't helpful. It makes me feel worse because I know what I should do.
I struggle to share my struggles for this very reason.
When you share your struggles, people like to tell you what to do and I don’t like that very much.
I believe a common issue among those of us who identify as spiritual is that we often assume the role of ‘teachers’ in the lives of others. We awaken to learn so much about life and believe we have it all figured out.
So when someone is struggling, we hastily offer them advice.
We tell them what to do.
What this does is that it leads to unintentionally imposing our beliefs on others, which may not even resonate with them. Our well-intentioned guidance might not align with their personal journey or needs which only creates a dynamic where the other person feels judged or misunderstood, rather than supported. Not only that, it creates this sense of superiority, where we overlook the complexity of a person’s experiences which makes them feel like they should not have said anything.
