Why You SHOULD Be Offended! 😲
🤬 “𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓’𝐒 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄!!!” 🤬
The current trend of “being offended” is a symptom of much greater root problems: mental health, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness. 👍
Anyone can be offended, including myself. It’s a natural response to environmental stimuli our brains perceive to be threatening. 👀
The problem is when the amount of stimuli one gets offended by stacks. What first begins as small, mild fears become magnified into long-term habits of avoidance and aversion. The problem is, as psychologist Carl Jung put it: “Whatever you resist persists and grows larger in size.” 💬
There’s a form of behavioral therapy used to treat anxiety disorders known as exposure therapy. What happens is a patient is gradually exposed to the sources of their anxiety, let’s take an elevator as an example. Little by little, day by day, the patient will take another step closer toward the elevator until they finally have stepped inside.
With repeated exposure, a person’s brain learns it has nothing to fear. With repeated exposure, a person’s fears dissolve and what once seemed so frightening disappears. 😅
🌟 It’s a paradox about fear: the way out of fear is to first go into it. You allow yourself to experience short-term fears for long-term fearlessness. 🌟
That’s why it’s so important as we continue to grow and mature that we open ourselves to things that make us feel uncomfortable, including the things that “offend” us. Otherwise it will get bigger over time. 🙌
Instead of always seeing our “triggers” as signs something outside us needs to change, let’s be willing to acknowledge what we’re feeling and introspect as to why. 💗
And what I’m telling you isn’t hyperbole; I used this for my own personal growth. When I “feel offended” I’ve had to ask myself: “Why?” I want to find the roots of the triggers so I can continue addressing them instead of avoiding them. 😊
I reached a point in my life where I realized “being offended” wasn’t going to help me in the long-term, that my happiness could so easily be taken from me thanks to my environment. The world is filled with uncertainty, life is constantly changing, and it was self-defeating to always expect other people to change for my feelings of safety and security.
💥 I realized I had to take far more responsibility for my life if I was ever going to help myself. 💥
It’s not to say everything is my responsibility or that I control everything that happens in my life. It’s to say that no matter what happens I will choose how I respond to it. 🤔
We must take control of our emotions or they will control us. It doesn’t mean suppress our emotions but ACCEPT whatever we’re feeling and THEN choose our response. 😫
👐 I’d love to plant the seed in this post that our emotions aren’t perfect, but that we can use them in a very effective and constructive manner. 👐
By no means am I saying I’m perfect or that I’ve 100% mastered this skill. It’s always an ongoing development. I’m simply sharing what’s served me so generously in the hopes it may serve you too. ❤️
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