* That last one, my brother told me that one. When I found out it wasn’t true (when I was about 6), I cried.
When someone pisses you off, says something that just gets to you (and cuts deep), someone does something that immediately makes you uncomfortable, or something happens that immediately makes you cringe with anxiety or panic with dread… what would happen if your instinct was to instantly dismiss it?
The seeds of those emotions, fears and dreads that are triggered within you, by stuff that happens, stuff that’s said, or stuff that people say, many were first planted when you were just a kid. By your parents (or how they treated/didn’t treat you), other kids at school or just because you were making your way in a big, new, scary world full of big and scary people. Fears of abandonment, when people don’t listen to us, when we think they think we’re stupid…
Our deep-seated fears, anxieties, hang-ups or prejudices may be triggered by things that were first formed way back when we were far, far, far, far less-equipped to deal with the world. One that (may) seems so much scarier now because we have far, far, far, far, far more experience within it, and with the people within it.
So next time something pisses you off instantly, and triggers you, see what happens if you instantly reject the emotions that come about because of it… Think of why you may feel that way… Where is it coming from? Think if you can trace it back to why it (always?) sets you off…