One afternoon, a sage arrived in the city of Akbar with his most faithful disciple. The people did not give much importance to his presence and his teaching did not appeal to the inhabitants of the city. In fact, it eventually became the object of derision by many. The disciple felt very bad about the treatment his master received. He was slowly growing a great anger and did not understand why his teacher did not put an end to all this or simply leave the city. One day, while walking down Akbar's main street, a group of men and women began to insult him. Instead of pretending to ignore them, the sage approached them and blessed them. The disciple, unable to bear the situation for which he also blamed his master, asked him: - Is it possible that you did not hear what they told you? They shouted horrible things at you and you answer them with nice words! - Each of us can only offer what we have. Was the answer of the old sage.
There are people who act like "garbage trucks", carry enormous anger, frustration, despair and fear within themselves, and dump these feelings into all of their relationships. In fact, you can't even blame them because, like the fairytale master, everyone offers what they have. Our behaviors and attitudes are just the expression of what we feel and think. We relate as we are, we cannot behave differently. But relating to people like this has a very high cost.When we listen to a person who is afraid every day, he will end up transmitting his fears to us, making us fear life. When we listen to someone who complains about everything and is never satisfied with anything, he will end up infecting us with his way of seeing the world. When we relate to people who always react with anger we will end up thinking that this way of reacting is normal and we will include anger among the normal forms of response.After all, our essence is not immutable, but it changes according to circumstances and relationships. . This is why it is very important to carefully select the people we interact with on a daily basis, those we allow to enter our lives and to whom we give the possibility to change. Of course, this does not mean that we must live with the fear that others "contaminate" ours. essence, because we are able to learn even from bad experiences. But this cannot be the norm. We must carefully cultivate the garden of our interpersonal relationships and be ready to weed out if the need arises. If we don't, weeds can end up covering or even suffocating the rest of the plants - the ones that need to be grown and stored carefully.
From time to time it is appropriate to look back and do an examination of conscience, to see who we have become. We tend to think that our essence is immutable, but in reality it is not, experiences change us, but often we do not realize it. Over the years we can become tougher and less sensitive people, more materialistic and less grateful ... Therefore it is It is advisable to seek within ourselves those qualities that we want to maintain and develop, to be sure not to lose them.Moreover, it is essential that we make our own the idea that: what others say about us is their problem, how we react is ours. Sometimes it is difficult to keep the balance and it is likely that we will not always succeed, but we can try. Do not respond to anger with anger and despair with despair, for doing so will only sow these seeds in you. Remember that life is too short for others to impose their rules and their worldview on us. Don't let them take away the good in you.
