ALL THAT WE HAVE CONTROL OVER ARE OUR OWN THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS

Let’s convince ourselves that people are generally good, and they mean well. They like themselves to be thought highly of -- because they have good intents. As fellow humans, everyone is worthy of our empathy. They deserve love first and judgement second. That’s the gesture that we need to emulate for our own sake as well. We deserve to harbour feelings that bring positive energy out into the universe. We should have hearts that empathise, apologise, introspect, grow and understand that all we control at the end of the day is ourselves — our own thoughts and actions.

We can’t ever control what others do; we can control only our response. And we have to remember this even when others hurt us, when they leave or betray us, when they cheat us, or they lie and steal. When the people we love break our hearts or don’t care to reciprocate our well-meaning actions, none of that is about us.

It’s easy to blame others, focusing on their action rather than our reaction, or focusing on our reaction as nothing more than the knee-jerk emotion it made us feel. Of course, they’re responsible, too, but it’s not our domain to make them aware of this. All we have at the end of the day is our own truth — our actions, our thoughts and choices. And we have the power to either dwell on “what they did,” or choose to claim ownership and responsibility and resume our rightful power over our own lives.