The one piece of advice I’d like to share with people is: the less we respond to negativity, the more peaceful we become. Whilst I have tried to upheld this principle in my life, sometimes it is difficult to avoid succumbing to negativity. A particular case that comes to mind occurred with a close friend some years ago. This particular individual had a knack for pressing my buttons and calling into question my way of living. Whilst he wasn’t a negative person, I felt he was transferring his unresolved wounds. This caused heated discussion between us and on one occasion, we were out riding with a group of friends and a fiery exchange of words ensued.
It was difficult to uphold the principle of not succumbing to other people’s negativity in that example. My emotions hijacked my mind which lead to a heated conversation between us. I was regretful for having interacted with my friend this way because I did not want it to play out this way. It was difficult to follow my advice at the time because everything I knew went out the window in that brief exchange. Upon careful examination later, I felt like another person had taken over me when the anger came to the surface. I learned that day that I was holding on to unresolved anger from my childhood that I hadn’t dealt with.
Whilst the experience was unfortunate, it shone a light on a repressed aspect of myself I had not faced up to. It was a good opportunity to work on myself and make peace with the anger. Sometimes, unfortunate things happen and whilst our inclination is to dwell upon the incident, we ought to look at what we can learn from the experience. In my case, it was an opportunity to investigate my thoughts and emotions and transform my childhood anger so it doesn’t show up again when I least expect it