Do you think about what others are thinking about a little too much?

We all do, to some degree. Interestingly, we are probably wrong about what others are thinking a lot of the time. Over time, we can learn to focus more on what we have control over and give less energy to things that we don’t. The concept of power is very… powerful. The book, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, is an autobiography about his time as a Jewish psychologist in Germany during the Holocaust. In the book, he describes the point where everything had been taken from him—his home, possessions, and his family. He was also starved and beaten. He made a decision that no matter what was done to him, they would not destroy the person he is. I often posit that if someone can apply the concept of power under circumstances that extreme, then we can in arguably less-severe situations.

It can seem easier to write someone off once they’ve hurt or disrespected us rather than risk further hurt feelings. At times, this can be very healthy as the person may have been toxic to us, and it’s important to preserve our own state of being. There are also times when writing someone off is merely a defense mechanism used to protect ourselves from perceived pain. Sigmund

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