What Burdens We Bear | LMAC FreeStyle Collage No. 151

Hello LMAC and Hive members. I wanted to share my current collage whose theme entails a generous female who indulges others and extends herself on their behalf. She's a sympathetic soul.

My style of collage is a Freestyle. Although I usually do, I wasn't required to utilize any contest photo in my design. However, if you'd like to join in visit: # Let's Make a Collage - A Contest for All Creatives on Hive - Round 246 - ✨50 HIVE in the Prize Pool!.

You bend over backwards to please. Where does it get you?

A small percentage of the time...satisfaction. The majority of the time, dissatisfaction. The reason for this is individuals who are generous with their time and kindness usually end up on on the short end of the stick.

By that I mean people who burden you with their problems, no matter whether relationship, financial, or other issues that may arise in their lives, welcome intervention if you will be relieving them of responsibilities in their situations. They are free to go about their day knowing that you have stepped in and will handle things for them.

What are you left with then?

The burden of others problems attempting to figure out ways to help. The most burdensome of problems to you I feel are ones that involve relationship issues.

Often people only want a sounding board; someone to hear them out. They rarely want advice, or even take it when you offer. Some get offended if the advice is contrary to what they have in mind. They don't have a solution, yet when you offer one, you become the villain.

I speak from personal knowledge.

Years ago when I first started my career, I met a young lady at the company who as also a new employee. I figured we could bond over the "newness" of our first position at a major company. I realized later that she latched on to me because, as she commented, I was a good listener. No one else understood her or would take the time to listen.

My heart immediately went out to her. Compassion and sympathy filled me to the point I desperately wanted to help her. "Please keep this between us," she would say each time she ran to me with a new problem (which seemed to be more than once a month).

"Did you know that Carmen" was the gist of conversations I frequently overhead. Or, another co-worker would approach me and ask that question. I quickly realized within six months that the person I had come to like had not only confided in me her personal affairs but almost everyone else in the office.

The content of the issues in my opinion was not one I would have personally divulged to anyone, even to me. During my tenure and in life in general, I've met numerous people who feel compelled to spill their life's story to anyone who will listen. I've yet to comprehend the reason for this.

But to the person receiving such confidential information, the substance can weight heavily on one's mind. It's human nature to be concerned for the welfare and well-being of another person.

However, when other people's problems begin to have a profound affect on you, that is the time to take a step back and reassess your reason for allowing this to happen.

It is said that generally in life no one forces another person to do anything they don't want to do. Individuals allow and sometimes invite external issues into their lives. In essence, they permit others to place burdens upon them.

The result of these external stressors can manifest itself in numerous ways, both mentally and physically.

Empathy is awesome and an excellent attitude for one's personality. I have felt empathy over the years for individuals who have experienced the same hardships and difficulties as I. A willingness to listen and take on others' problems can become excessive. That's when you can experience burnout and become overwhelmed by "empathy fatigue" ¹.

In some situations, it can be costly. For example, when you spend the majority of time concentrating on other people and their problems, it leaves little room to tend to your own well-being and issues. You're essentially putting priority over yourself for others. This can lead to exhaustion, resentment toward others, and physical ailments. ²

Knowing when and how much involvement you're willing to devote to another person for the sake of their problems is an individual choice.

For my current collage, I attempted to portray a female bending over backward" as people say to please others. I located an appropriate free-sourced image that fit perfectly. In her mouth I place a branch with flowers to show her benevolence as she extends herself to others to help.

On top of the branches I placed the contest photo to signify a helping hand whose weight has become a burden to handle. Of course, holding even a light object in your mouth gets tiresome.

I surrounded her with different elements to portray the different individuals in needs of specific attention to their individual problems.

Below are my steps in which I hope that I was able to portray my theme in clarity. I utilized Canva to blend the different type images. I leave with you my procedures which began with a blank, white canvas. I then added layers of elements in accordance with my upgraded Annual Pro Membership. Tools I use include the ability to remove backgrounds, resize, filter, duplicate, detach elements from their backgrounds, and reposition items as required.

The images I included in my collage design are listed below:

Item	Contributor	Source
LMAC Contest #246-Pumpkin in Hand	Contributed to #LIL by @sachingeorge	Link
Female bending over	Pexels	Link
Deer	Pixabay	Link
White Flowers	Pixabay	Link
Protea Flower Head	Pexels	Link
Leopard	Pixabay	Link
Silver flower	Contributed to #LIL by @agmoore	Link
Wild Pink Onion Flower	Contributed to #LIL by @borjan	Link
Blue butterfly	Pixabay	Link
Little Egret	Contributed to #LIL by @digitalis	Link