Are you often offended or irritated by the behavior of other people? Or are you angry because someone (your partner, relative, wife or husband, friend, boss, etc.) treats you badly?
If you are reading this article, you are probably interested in how to rise above these negative emotions, how to free yourself from the heavy burden of your problems. So, let’s figure out together how to achieve this important goal (how not to be offended).
First of all, I want to mention this proverb:
“Nobody owes us anything.”
In fact, each person is always absolutely free in how to react to any events that happen to oneself. Someone is happy, having nothing in one’s pocket, and someone – even a millionaire or billionaire – feels grief, though enjoying almost all the benefits in the whole world. After all, happiness is not in money, while human feelings and emotions is something that absolutely everyone experiences.
The Parable of Omar Khayyam and the Dirty Robe
I don’t know if this story is true or not, but such a parable about Omar Khayyam is spreading on the Internet, I think this is exactly what can help us in solving this problem – how now to be offended and irritated.
So, once upon a time one person began to publicly insult Omar Khayyam: “Atheist! Drunkard! Thief!” Omar Khayyam only smiled in response. A certain young rich man in silk pants was watching this scene nearby. He was dressed in the latest fashion. Approaching Khayyam, he asked him: “How can you tolerate such insults? Are you really not offended at all by that man?” Omar Khayyam smiled. And offered to go with him.
The rich man followed along. They came to a dusty closet. Omar Khayyam lit a candle lamp and began to rummage through the chest. Finally, he found a holey, useless old robe. Omar Khayyam said to the young man: “Try it on, it’s made just for you.” The rich man caught the robe and, having looked at it carefully, became angry: “Why do I need these rags? I’m dressed decently. You must have gone completely crazy!” Having said this, he threw the robe on the floor. “You see,” said Khayyam, “you refused to try on these rags. That’s why I refused to try on the curses that man threw at me.”
So, as this story tells us, Omar Khayyam did not try on the dirty words of his offender. And indeed, we are not obliged to try on the bad culture, bad manners, curses of another person. After all, we do not want to be like that! It would be really great if we could not stoop to the level of a person with low moral values.
Not being offended is not that difficult. You just need to think about your own goal and not pay attention to the bad behavior of others.
Therefore, in such a situation, you should always remind yourself that “I want to be better”, “if I don’t pay attention to the bad behavior of others, this is a manifestation of my dignity and willpower”. If you always stoop to the level of your offender, then you can become a person of exactly the same level. To achieve success in life, in business, in relationships, you should always pursue higher goals and not be held back by those who drag you down.
Of course, it is not necessary that our “offender” is really such a bad person. Perhaps one of our friends or relatives has a slightly bad character, so they often behave somewhat rudely or harshly. This does not mean that we should respond in kind. If we are truly not offended by the behavior of others (remember that we do not need to “try on dirty clothes”), then in essence we will not care whether they speak harshly to us or not, and then, perhaps, any situation can be turned into a good one with the help of humor and kindness.
Often, our leniency towards others can touch their hearts and they, too, will want to change and become like us. And then bad relationships can turn into good ones.
Of course, I will not touch on relationships with people now, this is not the topic of this article. Now I am simply trying to convey this idea – we always have the freedom not to be offended, not to pay attention to bad things and strive to achieve those goals in our lives that we ourselves have set. And no one can take away our freedom of thought, will and desire to fulfill our mission in life. Sometimes we need to understand that the difficulties that have arisen in our lives allow us to temper our soul and heart. Having tempered ourselves, we can do greater things.
Ancient Chinese sage Mencius said:
“… When Heavens is going to impose a great responsibility on someone, they will first make him experience mental torment, and also fully experience physical pain and even hunger. They will make him suffer from poverty and will destroy everything that he tries to accomplish…”
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body. (Seneca)
Perhaps each of us has a certain great mission in life, and this mission, of course, is to do very good, bright and kind deeds. So let’s not allow our own anger, resentment and other unnecessary emotions overshadow our path! And finally, I want to wish you to never be offended, always have a good mood, which does not depend on the behavior and actions of other people.
You will get a reward for good and a punishment for evil
At the same time, perhaps it is worth remembering that other people are also not so bad, maybe they will also change for the better in the future – but this is their own business, and our task is to do what we want to accomplish!
