I think one of the perks of growing up is realizing that many times, a lot of the things that we allow to get to us need our permission to do so. The reactions we give to things are not really as knee-jerk as we think. How people treat us, what they think of us, and how it makes us feel, these are things that we only allow ourselves to feel. And if we’re not careful, we’ll find ourselves harboring ill feelings and keeping people in our minds who don’t deserve a spot there.
When people say that they’re letting go of baggage, it’s always a defining moment, and if they follow through with it, it could mark a change in their lives. Because try as we might, we can’t make everyone like or love us, there will always be those who hate us enough to insult us. They will always go out of their way to try to hurt us. In the end, what matters the most is how we handle this afterward.
Imagine you were walking down the road one day and someone made a statement you found extremely insulting. You could go home that day crying and feeling really bad about the insult, it could be all you think about, and it could even upset the balance you’ve planned for the next couple of days. That’s how badly the insult could hit you. But then, what if that day, you saw that the person who insulted you had a mental illness and really needed medical help? Will you still feel so bad?
Or what if it was a child who made the insulting statement, your hurt and anger might not be directed at the child, but at the parents who failed to raise them right. Do you see where I’m trying to go with all this? With each different case of the insult, you adjust your reaction. There are things strangers will say to you, and you’d brush them off simply because they don’t know you well enough to know better. However, if your friends and family do the same thing, you will take it seriously and see it as a personal affront because, unlike the strangers, they know you well enough to know better than to do that.
So, what am I trying to say here? We decide what our responses will be to insults and whatnot. I’m not saying that we should put on a smiley face every time someone insults us or tries to harm us. No, that would be silly. I’m just saying that we can choose not to let these things weigh down our minds and take up residence in our heads. Constantly thinking and worrying about these things will not take the sting away, instead, the more we think of them, the more painful they get. We can't avoid it. So the best thing to do will always be to just let it all go.
Life isn’t so hard that we have to keep all this ugliness and bitterness inside us. Just let it go, you’ll feel better for it. I promise you!
