Resentment. Author and psychologist Tara Brach writes in her book Radical Acceptance, “The word resentment means ‘to feel again.’ Each time we repeat to ourselves a story of how we’ve been wronged, we feel again in our body and mind the anger at being violated. But often enough our resentment of others reflects our resentment of ourselves. When someone rejects us, he or she might be reinforcing a view we already hold – that we’re not good enough, not kind enough, not lovable enough.”
What does that perspective do to us? It makes us doubt ourselves, our abilities, and our worth.
How can we reach towards what author Walt Whitman wrote, “I am larger and better than I thought. I did not think I held so much goodness.”
Because you do hold much goodness in your heart. You do shine the light for many. You do inspire. You do make people smile.
Everyone has things in their past that weigh them down. Longfellow, a poet, said, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
If we can empathize with our enemies, why is it so hard to empathize with ourselves?
Instead of resenting what happened, and allowing that anger to enter our cells, let’s embrace what we learned along the way. As author and speaker Wayne Dyer said, “When you change the way you see things, the things you see change.”
And as late actor Sidney Poitier said, “I wouldn’t change a single thing, because one change alters every moment that follows it.”
May we release any resentment and empathize with the beautiful person we are because we travelled the path we did.