You choose how you let things affect you, how you respond to others is your decision, you do not have to react to how you are treated…
It is the top 10 hits on today’s inspiring “meme” list. I don’t completely disagree, but the pendulum swing to one side is a bit dramatic. I am more of a, lets meet in the middle kind of girl.
You can be kind but not naive; you can be giving but not taken advantage of, you can be friendly but not vulnerable.
A group of kids walking down the hallway in school see a boy attacking a disabled boy and everyone stands and watches, someone even records the event. This should be justified by today’s standard; we don’t have to let others affect how we feel so we become marshmallows and idly watch things happen.
I would be absolutely disappointed if I knew that my child watch another child be beaten, I am sure that a few of you feel the same way yet we let this happen verbally daily. For some reason we think it is acceptable to let others nonphysical actions take a toll on us metaly because we need to be the “better person”.
You are actually not being a better person, do you know why? Because you are not being your best you when you let someone else chisel away at your mental health.
At the beginning of my marriage I sat idle while I was being treated poorly by family. I was left out of events, the victim of gossip, shunned as if I was some kind of evil deity that had entered the family and I did the “Christian” act of smiling and trying to pretend that I was not hurt because it was my choice to let it affect me, right?
Wrong, it started to take a toll on me, my marriage, I was draining myself trying to be kind, and then one day on a camping adventure my top blew and I lost control. That just gave people even more ammo to add to their gun and I was slaughtered. I did my best to apologize but they had what they needed to nail me to the cross and yet for another year I continued to try to be the better person and ignore their actions.
Then one day I had an eye opening experience and I realized that I was allowing myself to be mentally damaged even if my full intent was to not be affected. We are HUMAN; no matter how hard you try you can’t just simply not let things affect you. Don’t believe me? If you are raped everyday can you really tell me that you can mentally be just fine because it is your choice to let it affect you? You can choose to work through it but you would not continue to let yourself back into that situation if given a choice.
Damage is not always only physical, emotional damage can be just as harmful. So, be kind but don’t let people take advantage of you, be real with yourself and set boundaries so that people cannot reach you with their arrogant missile attacks, release the toxic people from your life and become your best you.
~ AJ ~
