Perspective

Perspective. The lens we see everything through. Make a single change, and everything looks different. I've recently been looking through a zoomed lens, focused on everyone's problems, submerging myself into situations I had no control over. It took me a while to understand that I can't control everything, and that it's okay to step back.

When I was able to do that for myself, I felt free. Why was I stressing so much over problems that didn't include me? Don't get me wrong, I haven't drop kicked these people out of my life and said, "Deal with your own junk, smell you later!". I still care for them, and I'll offer them the best advice I have. But I can't get stuck making everyone but myself happy.

When I was able to focus on my own happiness, I realized that others were trying to help me more than I was. I saw them as threats, picking on things I didn't pay attention to. I started feeling insecure about myself; my eating habits, exercising (or the lack of), among other things. It took me a while to understand that their words weren't meant to hurt me, but to help me.

Training myself to control how words affect me has been hard. To be honest I'm still working on it. But being a few steps from where I was, has changed everything.