A stressed man. [Photo/pinterest]
At the foundation of carrying your own weather is the ability to pause between stimulus and response. We are never without choice. That doesn’t mean things don’t happen outside of our control, or that our choices can’t be severely limited. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
It’s easy to feel like a victim with such thoughts, surrendering to the belief that we’re helplessly subject to the external world. And when others are the source of our dismay and helplessness, it’s easy to cast blame, level accusations and adopt a victim mindset and language.
At the foundation of carrying your own weather is the ability to pause between stimulus and response. The earliest humans learned “fight or flight” as a way of reacting to potentially life-threatening situations. Fast-forward to the modern world. For most of us, the challenge of daily survival is no longer the standard. Our stresses now come in different, less life-threatening forms. Yet, external stimuli naturally cause us to react quickly, and sometimes inappropriately.
Thankfully, we have more than just the reactive part of our brain to work with. As human beings, we share the unique trait of self-awareness, the ability to see and evaluate our own thoughts. It gives us the capability to pause, step back and see ourselves along with the paradigms we adopt and use. In effect, it gives us the freedom to choose our response proactively.
Carrying one’s weather can express itself in many ways: from the simple choice to keep a pleasant or professional disposition, to not allowing the events around us to spin the needle of our moral compass. But at the heart of it is always a choice, and that power can never be surrendered unless we allow it.