As
you wake up every morning, you decide how your day is going to be, do you want
it to be good and enjoyable or do you allow your perception of the day’s events
to dictate your state of mind. You are going to face the day with a close and
defeated mind or an open and grateful one. At any given time of each day,
negative and positive things will happen to you and, your perception of these
events will be the determining factor of how your day will unfold. You will
meet many people who will behave differently towards you depending on their
state of mind; your response to these circumstances will shape your day. Can
you show compassion to someone who has done you wrong? Can you disregard the
injustice befalling you to understand the real reason behind the attitude of
the supposed offender?
Every
time you feel that an injustice has been done to you, your first reaction is to
become angry and, possibly retaliate to satisfy your desire for revenge. No one
wants to feel hard done by others, everybody deserves justice, good treatment
and a comfortable sense of wellbeing. You need to be in a good place mentally
and physically to withstand the rigor and setbacks in life. You cannot walk
around with a negative mind set, full of resentment and expect things to go
your way. Even though you cannot stop some difficult circumstances from
happening to you, you still have the ability to choose how you react to those
events. If you choose to see them has part of your journey in becoming what you
want it to be, you will be in a better position to accept them for what they
are and, deal with them.
You
might be able to tell from the way someone is behaving that they are in
distress, but you will not know the extent of their problem unless they tell
you what they are going through. People are generally quick to judge others
through their actions, you will not know their motivation for acting the way
they did until they decide to tell you.
You
have to learn to be compassionate towards others, especially when they don’t
behave the way you expect them to. Happy people don’t go around hurting or
abusing others, because they are so preoccupied with sharing their joy and
happiness. The next time a person behaves contrary to your expectation, instead
of allowing yourself to be overcome with anger, stop and think about the reason
for the strange behaviour. When you choose to be more understanding towards
others, your attitude gives you the freedom to react the way you want, rather
than being a prisoner to your emotions.
A
man we would call Jim was sitting on a train coming back from a day work during
the weekend, during his journey another man boarded the train with three young
children. The children were quite rowdy and restless and contrary to Jim and
other passenger’s expectations, the man who was supposed to be the father did
not seem to care about the disruptive behaviour of his children. Outraged by
the attitude of the children’s father Jim called him out to ask if he was the
father, he responded affirmatively and he continued to ask if he could get his
children to make less noise. The
father promptly apologised to Jim and, explained that the children were still
in shock as they lost their mum just two hours earlier.
In a matter of seconds, Jim and other around
went from being outraged to being compassionate. It is not the nature of the
event that changed their attitude but their perception of what happened. If you
learn to show more compassion towards others, if you choose carefully your
reaction to circumstances and events happening to you every day, you will begin
to gain freedom from your emotion. You will be able to make decision based on
fact not only about how you feel. Your feeling about your circumstances might
not reflect the truth and, by allowing your emotion to dictate your response
you give away power. Be more compassionate towards others, make an effort to
understand why they are acting out of character and whenever possible choose to
react with more compassion.
CHRISTIAN
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