“For many people, one of the most frustrating aspects of life is not be able to understand other people’s behavior. We see them as “guilty” instead of “innocent.” It’s tempting to focus on people’s seemingly irrational behavior – their comments, actions, mean-spirited acts, selfish behavior – and get extremely frustrated. If we focus on behavior too much, it can seem like other people are making us miserable.
But as I once heard Wayne Dyer sarcastically suggest in a lecture, “Round up all the people who are making you miserable and bring them to me. I will treat them [as a counselor] and you’ll bet better!” Obviously, this is absurd. It’s true that other people do weird things (who doesn’t?), but we are the ones getting upset, so we are the ones who need to change. I’m not talking about accepting, ignoring, or advocating violence or any other deviant behavior. I’m merely talking about learning to be less bothered by the actions of people.”
Richard Carlson, PH.D., in “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”
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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.
