One of the side benefits of this journey that we're all on is that I've come to truly believe that people project their own unhappiness onto other people, and that it's not personal, but you also can't let it steal your own happiness.
I'm very sensitive and am hurt very easily, and I never quite understood that when someone was rude or mean it really wasn't about me, it was about them, their own issues and unhappiness. I would always just stew about it, fret about it. Lately, I don't as much and I think it's partially because I read this:
Quote:
People think that happiness is like a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it...You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings...
I also keep remembering a simple idea my friend Darcey told me once--all the sorrow and trouble in the world is caused by unhappy people. Not only in the big global Hitler-'n'-Stalin picture, but also on the smallest personal level. Even in my own life, I can see exactly where my episodes of unhappiness have brought suffering or distress or (at the very least) inconvenience to those around me.
The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all of your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.
--Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
It is in the shelter of each other that people live.--Irish proverb
