Snapping and fighting back is easy. Giving someone a piece of our minds is tempting. Tit for tat. Eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. Lex talionis. Reciprocity in all things, right?
Retaliation is reciprocal harm? We good with that? Is that what we want from life?
But it’s balanced and justified… right?
How many of those fight-backs and mind-piece-giftings resulted in regret? That attitude-filled email, or text? How’d that work out?
Retaliation is reciprocal harm? We good with that? Is that what we want from life?
But it’s balanced and justified… right?
How many of those fight-backs and mind-piece-giftings resulted in regret? That attitude-filled email, or text? How’d that work out?
Another has done me wrong? Let him see to it. He has his own tendencies, and his own affairs. What I have now is what the common nature has willed, and what I endeavor to accomplish now is what my nature wills.”
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5. 25
Being raised by a single-parent grandmother with her own anger issues and abusive tendencies increased the already-challenging process of emotional self-control to a level needing professional outside assistance.
Some passions and emotions I have a good handle on… others, not so much. It’s taken the better part of my life to achieve a semblance of control, and over the last fifteen years, that composure has developed from a two-dimensional appearance of control to a three-dimensional reality of control.
It’s hard work to reprogram oneself from the lessons learned during one’s formative years. It’s hard to not fall back into the automatic responses that come out when we’re not mindful. It’s hard to not “lose it” when that’s what was modeled for us.
What do we actually lose when we “lose it”?
We lose touch with the one thing we have control over.
Ourselves.
Retaliatory, reciprocal harm does nothing to better us, or the situation.
It only makes the ego feel better.
(See y’all tomorrow)
Some passions and emotions I have a good handle on… others, not so much. It’s taken the better part of my life to achieve a semblance of control, and over the last fifteen years, that composure has developed from a two-dimensional appearance of control to a three-dimensional reality of control.
It’s hard work to reprogram oneself from the lessons learned during one’s formative years. It’s hard to not fall back into the automatic responses that come out when we’re not mindful. It’s hard to not “lose it” when that’s what was modeled for us.
What do we actually lose when we “lose it”?
We lose touch with the one thing we have control over.
Ourselves.
Retaliatory, reciprocal harm does nothing to better us, or the situation.
It only makes the ego feel better.
(See y’all tomorrow)
RSS Feed
