I put the quote above in a message to friends and one person said, ‘”Easier said than done!” I wrote
back, “There are things you can change and things you can’t change. For the things you can’t change it’s your attachment to the idea that they will change, should change or must change that causes heart ache and stress. In this case, you give up the part of you that won’t let it be as it is, and let go of the idea of change.”
You can’t change the attitude of your teenager and you are in charge of how emotionally attached you are to him/her changing. You can’t change that someone isn’t the friend you thought they would be and accept them as they are. You can’t change that someone interrupts the flow of your life, causing you constant stress, and you can change whether you choose to be around them or not. Even if you can’t change being around them, you can change your attachment to how they behave and how you behave.
What weighs you down may not be the situation, but your reaction to that situation. You are always in charge of whether you react or respond to any situation. To respond is to choose what helps you be all that you want to be—and let go of anything that doesn’t assist with that.
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Scott A McDaniel photo.
