Sahaj Kaur Kohli: Why children of immigrants experience guilt -- and strategies to cope | TED

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2021-07-14 ・ TED


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Sahaj Kaur Kohli: Why children of immigrants experience guilt -- and strategies to cope | TED

44,208 views ・ 2021-07-14

TED


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Cloe Shasha Brooks: Hello, Sahaj, welcome, thanks for joining us.
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Sahaj Kaur Kohli: Thank you for having me,
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I'm so excited to be here.
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CSB: I'm so excited to be speaking with you.
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So you are a mental health therapist in training
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and the founder of Brown Girl Therapy,
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a community you started to allow the children of immigrants
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to speak openly about mental health issues.
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And one theme I've noticed in the content you share
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is the guilt frequently experienced by people with immigrant parents.
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Can you talk more about that guilt?
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SKK: There's definitely a relationship
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between being a child of immigrant parents living in the West
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and experiencing guilt.
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Children of immigrants are often straddling two cultures
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known as bicultural straddling.
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And there's often this expectation
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to make our immigrant parents' sacrifices and choices
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for coming to this country worth it.
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Many children of immigrants feel chronic sense of guilt
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for letting their parents down,
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for not being enough, for being too American,
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for seeming ungrateful.
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There’s also this sense of a thriver’s guilt
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or this guilt of growing, healing,
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accessing resources and opportunities that maybe our parents didn't have
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or our family and other parts of the world don't have access to.
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So many children of immigrants may have grown up being responsible
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for their parents as well.
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If we think about an immigrant's journey to the West,
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they may not speak English well,
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so a lot of children of immigrants may act as a translator,
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may help pay the bills,
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may help take care of younger siblings,
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so caretaking,
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and we know that immigrating and immigration
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can lead to a lot of family and generational conflict,
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as everyone in the family is navigating their own acculturation journey,
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creating a sense of belonging in the host country.
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So a lot of children of immigrants are often mediators
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for cultural conflict within their family.
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This responsibility for the well-being of our parents,
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whether it's explicitly or implicitly stated,
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can be reinforced over the years as a sense of obligation.
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And it's exhausting.
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You know, children of immigrants are often internalizing these beliefs
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that they have to be a certain way,
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that they have to act a certain way,
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and then they're out in the world feeling like they're also not enough
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in the Western sense of the word.
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And so it's really important, you know,
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I think in a lot of immigrant communities
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and for a lot of children of immigrants,
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we don't talk enough about questioning that guilt,
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questioning where it comes from and questioning why it's there.
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CSB: Yeah, so interesting.
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It looks like we have a question from the audience,
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"Is long term guilt ever justified or beneficial?"
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SKK: So, the thing we know about guilt is that there is healthy guilt, right?
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Healthy guilt alerts us to our morality,
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to the pain and hurt that we might be causing to other people,
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to the social and cultural standards that we may have crossed.
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And it can help direct our behavior.
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If we're really sitting with it, we can understand,
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"OK, you know what?
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I didn't want to hurt that person" or "I didn't want to do that thing."
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So that can help you then decide to make amends,
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to change your behavior, to apologize.
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But then we have unhealthy guilt
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where maybe the guilt that we're feeling is adopted through values
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that we don't necessarily hold
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or boundaries that we don't necessarily want to hold.
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So long-term guilt --
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guilt is not necessarily a negative emotion.
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It's really important to understand that differentiation,
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that guilt is something that can really guide us.
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And like any emotion, it's telling us something
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and we must listen to it before we decide how to handle it.
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CSB: Yeah.
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And in the unhealthy situation,
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what are some helpful strategies for dealing with it?
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I suspect it will be relevant to many demographics of people.
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SKK: So, you know,
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the thing about chronic guilt is that it can force us to be small.
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It can tell us we must stay within the box.
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We shouldn't take up a lot of space.
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It kind of encourages us to distrust our own needs and wants,
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especially if they differ from the people around us
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and our immigrant parents.
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So some strategies for adopting and dealing with guilt:
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It's really important to question the guilt.
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It's important to identify your parents's beliefs and values
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and then explore your own and see how they overlap.
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Ask yourself, "How can I lovingly detach
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from the assumption or belief my parent has."
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Ask yourself
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if you are internalizing something that doesn't actually speak true to you.
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Remind yourself also
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that your parents are often doing the best they can
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with what they know and what they were taught.
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And with that, you have to have a lot of self-compassion
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to know that you're figuring out how to deal with something
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that maybe no one in your family has dealt with.
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You were never taught how to deal with.
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So it's really important to show up with a lot of self compassion.
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And then the last thing that really comes to mind here
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is to accept that guilt may always be an emotion
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that you have to navigate.
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It's a warning light.
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I think a lot of children of immigrants look to guilt and feel guilt
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and then say, "Oh, my gosh,
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this is a sign that I need to turn around and not do the thing I want to do
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or continue on the path I’m about to take.”
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And instead, I say, sit with the guilt,
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see it as a warning sign
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and try to understand where it's really coming from.
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CSB: Yeah, that's incredibly helpful.
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We have a question from the audience.
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"What coping mechanisms
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would you recommend for someone dealing with guilt?"
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SKK: So all of the things,
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some of the coping mechanisms I already named, you know,
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it's really important to reauthor the narrative that you've been taught
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that things are binary.
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Something that I often see when people are dealing with guilt
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is that guilt is bad.
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Again, guilt is not necessarily bad.
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It's just an emotion that is trying to tell you something.
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So a lot of children of immigrants
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and a lot of people in this country
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think of feelings as good or bad,
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think of themselves as right or wrong,
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this or that, all or nothing.
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And I really want to encourage you to question that narrative.
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You know, two things can be true at the same time.
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You can pursue something that makes you really happy,
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something that is inherently good for you, healthy for you,
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and you can still feel guilt.
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And so to that, I just really want to drive home the point
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that guilt is not necessarily a bad emotion.
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And it's OK if you are always trying to navigate it.
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CSB: You know, one thing that I've also seen you talk about
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is how values,
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getting clear on our values, helps us manage our guilt.
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Can you share more about that?
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SKK: Absolutely.
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Getting clear on your values can definitely help with managing guilt.
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It's important to get clear on your values
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instead of assuming that your values are exactly the same
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as the people around you.
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And when you're not clear on what's important to you,
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it's really easy to follow into a pattern of what's expected of you,
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what other people want from you.
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And this can lead to a lot of people-pleasing behaviors,
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it can lead to seeking approval,
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maybe keeping the peace because that's what you've been taught,
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but it doesn't necessarily lead to personal fulfillment.
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So to get clear on your values,
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really spend some time reflecting on questions like what's important to you,
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when have you been the happiest?
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And think about the times that you've been the happiest,
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and then think about values that were being honored during that time.
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When were you the most unhappy?
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And think about values that might have been suppressed or crossed.
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We have to think about living our lives with value-driven choices.
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But that's really hard to understand if your values don't overlap
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with the people you love.
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And so what I hear from children of immigrants a lot
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is "My values aren't the same. So then what do I do?"
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And so to that, I say try to find ways to communicate to your parents,
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a lot of the assumptions and beliefs and values our parents have,
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some of them may be rooted in fear.
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If they're not necessarily happy with a career choice that you're making,
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but that aligns with your values,
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try to address the fear that's coming up.
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The fear that they have
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that you won't be secure when they're not here,
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that you won't be able to make enough money,
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that you won't be satisfied for years to come,
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and try to address those fears
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to communicate your values to your parents.
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CSB: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense,
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especially with different cultures and figuring all that out.
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So we have another question from the audience.
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Let's bring that one up.
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"How do you recommend that people address feelings of guilt
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tied to someone who is deceased?"
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From John Henderson.
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SKK: That's such a great question.
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You know what I see in the immigrant community
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and with children of immigrants that may be really relevant here
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is that guilt is often tied to grief.
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You know, the guilt of feeling misunderstood,
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the guilt of feeling like you can't do the things that you want,
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the guilt of feeling like you're not enough
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are tied to a grief of something that you didn't have.
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Maybe it wasn't the support from your parents.
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Maybe it wasn't the relationship that you really wanted.
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So to that, you know, for navigating that,
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I would say try to get really clear on what it is you feel guilty about
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and what it is that you're grieving and how you can separate those two.
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And I would really recommend seeking community and support for this
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and also therapy.
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CSB: Yeah, absolutely.
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But we've come almost to the end,
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if you could just say one thing that you think would be really important
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for people to remember when they're experiencing guilt,
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what would it be?
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SKK: You know, I'm going to drive home the same point,
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it is that guilt is a warning sign.
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Sit with it, identify your values and standards
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that are being crossed when you feel guilt,
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identify if they are your values and standards
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or someone else's that you have internalized
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and then try to sit with what's important to you in that moment
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before you decide what your next step should be.
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CSB: Fantastic.
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Well, thank you so much, Sahaj, for sharing all this,
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and for your wisdom.
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Take care, thanks for joining us.
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SKK: Thank you so much for having me.
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