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RELATIONSHIPS
Let’s admit it: you stayed in that relationship for years and even after seeing 532 red flags because of both the good parts AND the bad parts.
Let me say that again. The BAD aspects were also part of why you stayed, perhaps because they gave you permission to play a certain role, perhaps the saviour or the struggling tragic martyr, that you are clearly a good person because THEY are the bad person, or whatever it is that the story may be.
Life will be difficult and full of challenges - it’s part of the job description.
The trap is this: the expectation that life can be free of suffering, free of worry, free of fear, and free of anxiety. That somehow, somewhere, someone will give you something, tell you something, or teach you something that will just take all those troublesome emotions away, just like in that classic and very sad movie ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’.
Unfortunately, anyone who sells you such a promise is very simply misleading you. It doesn’t matter if the person saying it is a priest, a guru, a philosopher, or even (god forbid!) a therapist – it’s an expectation that will always lead to even further suffering and disappointment.
The perils of wanting (and having) more.
Maybe being told that our jobs should be meaningful, that our relationships should be painless and photogenic, and that we are all somehow special and destined for greatness, has caused frustration and disappointment rather than salvation.
The cost of being in the public gaze.
It used to be the movies that projected us into the realm of the fantastic, where people live perfect lives and are forever at the peak of their talents and beauty. Now however, even the movies have been upstaged by the vast majority of social media users who seem intent to portray themselves as the stars of their own perfect and meaningful lives. And as we watch each other, this raises in each of us the nagging question: 'why can't my life be as wonderful as theirs?'.