Don't take it personally

“Don't take it personally.”

Oh it's a hard piece of advice to swallow, isn't it?

Emotions are raw and I'm feeling more sensitive than usual.

I'm trying to practise The Four Agreements with an emphasis on the second agreement in the past few weeks. 

The Second Agreement: Don't take anything personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality. When you're immune to the opinions and actions of others you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

When we’re taking things personally, we are essentially giving someone power over us.

We’re allowing them to have control over how we feel and what we believe.

Why is this dangerous?

It's because we’re trusting someone else to tell us who we are, instead of relying on what we know to be true about ourselves and what truly defines us as a person.

So when someone criticises, is disappointed or simply disagrees with us. We can sit there in shame for hours on end, allowing a story to rule our mind and have our emotions spin into something greater than it is... or we can take a step back.

We can hit pause.

We can choose to end this seemingly futile moment in a different way.

Rather than engaging with the other person in anger and fear, we can act with compassion and open up a conversation.

Not just any conversation - a real honest one where we let go of assumptions and the outcome of wanting to be "right".

That's freedom right there.

Stay peachy,

Sheryl Thai,

CEO, League of Extraordinary Women