Our heart is incredibly resilient. It is our ego that isn’t.
Sometimes, I identify too tightly with my small self. Fueled by fear and lack, I make myself a victim of the world around me. I can remember too many examples in my recent past— raising my voice, becoming infuriated because of something that someone else did, shutting down a channel of honest communication or feedback.
If I exist in a repeated cycle that is ineffective or unhealthy (someone else “isn’t listening” or something “makes me feel” a particular way), what is my role? How can I communicate more effectively or differently? How can I reframe the notion that anyone can “make” me feel anything and take ownership? How can I put up healthier boundaries in order to take care of myself? Can I feel my pain with compassion and move through it gracefully?
We are a small self and a greater self at all times. When I react, it is my small self, the fragile being that finds worth externally, that consumes, that cowers or yells or needs to win. It’s a helpful reminder for me to realize that when I sway with the forces of the wind, my ego is dominating my energy.
But I am resilient. You are too. I am even and brave and rooted in love. My soul, as writer Amyra on the Tiny Buddha says, is a honey badger. I can reach my heart out to the sharpness of another’s tone and know something is going on for them. I can let myself cry and remain present in my body and not live in my head. I can let go of the asinine idea that other people’s reactions have anything to do with me.
I can choose love again and again and again.