Have you noticed lately that when you say: “Thank You” to someone, for almost anything, that the standard response is : “NO PROBLEM”…….
EVERY time this happens, it takes me aback.
The only response to ” Thank you “, is ” You are welcome”, or “My pleasure”, etc. etc.
When I say “thank you” to someone for anything, it is a tiny little gift of acknowledgment for this person, and if they can’t simply say, “you are welcome”, I feel dismissed. Now, I think people say ” no problem” because they feel a rush of feeling and since humanity, at least in the U.S. seems to be operating as if they are big computers where feelings are invalid, a rush of feeling must be cancelled out immediately. The best way to cancel the rush of feelings is to go into one’s head and dismiss the feeling rush with an intellectual response, like “no problem”.
I don’t think I will word this to death today. I am having a problem today that I am solving and am living in the moment to see the gift in every moment, but I am dealing with a problem. Briefly, my furnace has been out for four days, I am in the middle of a Spring snow storm in Colorado and I have had to talk to five furnace specialists. And all of them but one has told me “no problem” when I said “thank you”, Or when I said, “sorry, I did not know my furnace was a boiler type furnace”.
Again, not to word this to death but when someone is having a problem, and it is obvious that they are in a challenging situation, don’t say, “No problem”. Say something compassionate and empathetic to them. Say something that may seem really difficult to say like: ” wow, that seems really hard, you are doing a good job, ” and maybe even, “Is there anything I can do, if only to just let you know I see you and see how hard this and see how hard you are working to solve this!”, and then maybe even give them a hug.
We humans need to get back to our humanity, our ability to be empathetic and compassionate to one another. We can begin, one word at a time…….by saying “You are welcome, it is my pleasure”……….