Coexistence: The art of wellbeing

    Author: Gaya Reena Saji

The other day, one of my friends who had been in a terrible state of mind yet recovering made a call in which she burst into tears. I asked her the reason for her sudden emotional outburst. It took a while for her to subside her tears and answer me. Nevertheless, in between her sobs, she managed to share the picture with me. The matter went like, she being an art student had presented the latest portrait she had drawn by taking around two weeks to which her tutor reacted in an unpleasant way. From that moment on, she began to feel like, she’s not a worthy being and that she no more can create good portraits. Over time, she built on hate feel towards herself that she couldn’t stop crying. I felt glad that at least she felt like calling me and sharing the matter.

Well, I feel like there are many like this friend of mine who end up thinking low about them based on someone else’s reaction to them. It needn’t be mentioned that for a person who is already depressed, a small incident is more than enough to add to their sorrow. What such people fail to notice is that others with whom they associate too are human beings with feelings and emotions, just like them. For instance, my friend’s art tutor might have been in a terrible mood because of some other reason totally unrelated to my friend and just that she might have exploded at her. Also, it can happen that the tutor would have corrected my friend in the right sense and she couldn’t have been able to take it in the proper manner.

What we must remember is that the not-so-positive reactions that others have towards us need not be the reflection of how bad we are rather the bad times through which the other person is going through. We are often just a part of the other person’s world and a lot of other things influence their decisions and responses. How people react to us reveals about themselves and not ours. We often attach a lot of importance to the negative that we gather from another person not thinking about the level of importance they give to us. There’s a saying that some doors never give any light and is better to keep them closed. 

The people who treat us badly are like that door that needs to be kept closed when unnecessary things start flowing through them and opened only if it aids our growth. We are all together in this world for fulfilling our own purposes and just because of bad response from some, we should never be discouraged to resume our journey and move ahead.