EP 378: When People Cause us Stress

As we experience life, we experience people. Most of the time, the people in our lives are a source of emotional nourishment. A lot of the time, the people we experience are neutral, nameless, and faceless and give us no reason to even remember them. But some of the time, the people in our lives are a source of emotionally driven stress. Maybe it’s a coworker who gets up our sleeve. Perhaps it’s an anonymous person who cut us off on our drive home. Or it could even be a family member who is pushing our buttons. In any of these examples, the tension caused by our judgment of these people creates the condition for stress in our bodies. So it is in our best interest to let go of the anger and resentment caused by these people. One way to do that is to remind yourself that everyone - including you - is simply doing what they feel they need to do in order to be happy and free from suffering. Another way is to picture this person as a very young baby. This will help us see the inner nobility that exists within every person, no matter how deeply it is covered with hardness and meanness. If you’d like to learn a simple daily practice to develop compassion for even the most difficult people in our lives, please comment below or send me a direct message.