Listened to my Brain (Trigger Warning)

"Love thy neighbor, as thy self."

This trips up alot of people. Because it's typically said that you respect people who respect you. And on some level, this is true. But the harder thing is to present respect and caring towards those that show none to you.

To react in kind, only causes this pain to perpetuate.

Though sometimes it's not possible to get through to people. These are people who don't need a presence in your life. Open minds and open hearts tend to be able find thier way to being more agreeable.

Closed minds and hardened hearts tend to block out everything that isn't agreeable to them. They need to figure out themselves, before they can be open to anything at all.

I think that there are times when the phrases like this only mess with people's minds. It's OK to get angry. Especially if someone provokes or is mean. We already have a lot of overload. I used to try to be so good. But then I got very sick and I realised that I was blocking all anger. Anger is healthy because it shows boundaries. I don't know the details of your situation but thought this idea can use to at least not force yourself to be the bigger person when you have a storm inside. I guess there's a lifetime of learning