Opinion

Despite the severity of your circumstances, my friends, you always have a choice of attitude. The most important thing you can do to be emotionally strong is to strengthen your mind. If fate has attacked you, you need to shore up your emotional well-being. Have you been able to shake off the pain of past events? Perhaps you feel continually harmed by circumstances that might not even take place in the future.

Have you ever come across an unflattering media post about you? Before social media, you could just completely forget that someone existed. Good times. You accidentally found out some so-called friends were talking harshly about you behind your back. Listen, you don’t have haters. They’re just fans in denial. Your boss just read you the riot act – again. Tell your boss what you think of him, and the truth shall set you free – from your job, that is.

Does he good-naturedly taunt you about certain habits? Do you lovingly tease your friends? Perhaps you were given an endearing nickname back in the day. Is the jesting welcome, or do you feel picked on? It may be that the joking remark helps point out some of your character traits in a non-threatening way.

None of us wish to expose the tender parts of ourselves to an unpleasant, unsympathetic critic. It may just result in severe ridicule or even humiliation. Up close, not one of us is even close to perfection. We pull the “Push” door sign. Sure, everyone has the right to do stupid things, but sometimes we abuse that privilege. Hey, in politics, stupidity is not even a handicap. But seriously, we have episodes of anger and self-pity and are not exactly reliably remarkable.

Do you genuinely like yourself? You may be unaware if your lack of self-acceptance is wreaking havoc across a range of emotional situations in your life. Hey, if I had no emotions, I don’t know how I’d feel about it.

Your body will eventually fall prey to the insults of aging. Listen, I just bought a new pair of shoes with memory foam insoles – no more forgetting why I walked into the kitchen. But truly, your career may not be as particularly fulfilling as you had hoped, and some of your biggest dreams could have been fatally crushed. Political progress and peace on earth look laughably improbable at this time.