We all are living in a thought bubble mentally. Throughout the day, you do some activities, meet people, eat food, work, study, spend time with your loved ones. You see people/things, you hear voices/sounds, you taste food, but mentally, you do not experience people, things, voices, sound, food, etc.
You also have to deal with certain situations/ circumstances. You might have an angry boss at your work place or your kid is not studying or you might have an ailing mother to take care of or you have to give a presentation in office for which you are not prepared or the stock market is crashing or the economy is down.
Mentally, you are not experiencing these situations or circumstances, either.
You only experience that which you put inside your thought bubble. No person, situation or circumstance has the power to put any thoughts in your thought bubble. Only you have that power.
So, if your boss gets angry at you, he cannot make you feel angry or intimidated or disrespectful.
If your boss gets angry at you and you put thoughts like “How can he speak to me like this? Okay, he is the boss, so what? How dare he speak to me this way?” you will feel anger.
If your boss gets angry at you and you put thoughts like “ Oh! Boss is angry, what mistake did I make. Now, will I have to work late night.. will he make me resign for such a small mistake” you will feel intimidated.
If your boss gets angry at you and you put thoughts like “he shouted at me in front of my colleagues. What will they think about me? Why everyone insults me like this?” you will feel disrespectful.
Your boss does not have the power to put any of these thoughts in your thought bubble.
Whatever the situation or any person’s action, it is totally your choice to put thoughts in your thought bubble and you will experience those thoughts.
I repeat, you will not experience the other person’s action or situation because you cannot. Your mind just doesn’t work that way.
You will only ever experience the thoughts that you put in your thought bubble. And whatever thoughts you put, you are the one who will experience the lightness or heaviness of those thoughts, just like the person in the picture is carrying weight over his shoulders. (The person is a very famous actor of Bollywood, Hrithik Roshan. This scene is from one of his movies).
If your boss gets angry, you can also think thoughts like “what happened to him? Is he ok? Sounds like he is having a bad day. Hope all is well with him and his family.” And you will experience love, compassion, concern.
Just ponder over this for a few moments, is it sensible to contaminate our mind because of other person’s action or a situation?