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Dear ,
A question has been following me all week:
Am I responding to life, or merely reacting to it?
The moment things go a bit haywire, or not according to plan, we tend to jump to conclusions, passing judgments and overthinking. It is a pervasive human tendency, we all know that.
Recently, observing a friend from my locality brought to my notice an important thing. The moment her 2-year-old daughter screams because she didn't get what she wanted, she jumps on her toes, and sometimes chides the other child who didn't give her what she wanted.
Sometimes, the other child would be my 3-year-old daughter, and I would tell her the mother to relax and that it's only children playing together.
I started thinking to myself that it is so easy to react either due to our habits, fears or conditioning. It happens to all of us.
When we respond, we are giving ourselves that extra space and time to think it through before reacting. Most of the time, we are oscillating between the two - reacting and responding.
On the other hand, when we react, our tone, body language, and thoughts are not in harmony, and it becomes defensive.
How can we increase the times in the day when we respond to what life presents us? This question has been following me not as a problem to solve, but as an invitation to slow down, and NOTICE!
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