{"id":2397,"date":"2011-02-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2011\/02\/therapy-thursday-keep-your-spo.html"},"modified":"2011-02-03T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-03T09:00:00","slug":"therapy-thursday-keep-your-spo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/02\/therapy-thursday-keep-your-spo.html","title":{"rendered":"Therapy Thursday: Keep Your Sponges Separate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pocket<\/span>I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. They will be a good reminder for me, as well, of something small I can concentrate on. Many of them are published in my book, “The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit.<\/a>” <\/em>
\nThe other day my husband, Eric, caught me cleaning our bathroom sink with the same sponge I used on our toilets. He took the sponge out of my hand and said, “We do not cross-contaminate in this house.”
\nI didn’t think it mattered one iota since I had loaded the thing with bacteria killers. But then it made me think of the comment by one of my readers: “Their boo-boos are not your boo-boos.” And I understood the deeper philosophy of the sponges.
\nWhen I try to console a friend of mine who is having marital problems, I don’t have to absorb her troubles and start doubting my own marriage. Our worlds are separate. Just as I don’t have to absorb all of my son’s hurt when he has a bad day at school or someone was mean to him at lacrosse practice. Although I know I’ll always ache when my kids suffer–or when a friend is going through a rough patch in her marriage–I can use different sponges. In fact, it’s best if I don’t cross-contaminate.<\/p>\n

* Click here to subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and click here to follow Therese on Twitter<\/b><\/a> and click here to join Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. They will be a good reminder for me, as well, of something small I can concentrate on. Many of them are published in my book, “The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-relationships"],"yoast_head":"\nTherapy Thursday: Keep Your Sponges Separate - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/02\/therapy-thursday-keep-your-spo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Therapy Thursday: Keep Your Sponges Separate - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. 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