Thread: Hatred
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Old 03-20-2014, 08:18 AM
  # 14 (permalink)  
SeekingGrowth
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: MI
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I think it helps to work on cultivating a mindset of acceptance - sort of an expansion of Step 1. Accepting that we are powerless over a lot of things in life, but that all experiences, good or bad, offer opportunities for learning and growth. There is a reason why these people push your buttons so powerfully. Perhaps they have treated you in a truly unacceptable and mean-spirited or hostile way, but there is a reason why these experiences have come into your life, and there are lessons to be learned that will help you become better, stronger, more compassionate - that will help you grow.

I've also found it helpful to consciously work on cultivating self-love. You are expending a lot of energy and focus externally, on these other people, and your reaction to them probably has lessons to teach you about yourself. I've heard it said that life is a mirror - what you like about people and what you don't like about people are all, at some level, reflections of yourself. I have found that if I turn my focus inward and work on nurturing self-love and self-acceptance, the behavior of other people towards me more easily rolls off me. I am better able to observe their behavior without their actions and words touching my core. Instead, I find myself wondering somewhat dispassionately about THEM and what things I am triggering in them that is causing their reaction.
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