Here I am scrolling through Facebook land in the last few weeks and everyone on my feed is offended at something. I am so freaking tired of it. I am actually offended that they are offended. There. I said it. Why does everybody have to walk on eggshells about everything? My news feed should not be high maintenance. Let's all calm down right now with a few great tips.
5 Ways to Stop Being Offended
- Tell yourself that you are not offended. The potential offender has just as much right to his/her opinions as you do. Plain and simple. But sometimes, there is a little voice in our head that reads into things. Puts inflection on words that might not have inflection attached. That's why it's best to talk to someone face to face and stop all this hiding behind the computer screen nonsense. It's easy to read into things when you can't hear the other person's voice.
- Put yourself in their place. Let's say for a second that the hot topic is gay marriage and someone posts something on their own Facebook wall. I personally do not believe in attacking what other people put up on their walls because that is their opinion and again, they have a right to it. BUT, if you can nicely communicate your beliefs and still support your friend, that might be a different matter; however, if you bash what your friend believes and supports in front of everyone on their own Facebook wall, well, how would you feel? You would be offended. Right. So, don't post bait on purpose unless you can handle the heat. It's somewhat ridiculous and it comes up all the time. People love to stir the pot. And it's a big ass pot.
- Give up being right. Some people believe that they must have the last word...no matter what. If it costs you friendships, relationships, and credibility is it worth it? What if you look at things from a truthful perspective instead and think about the other person's point of view if it has some truth to it? I know that there are truths out there I do not know and that when people get offended and mad, they tend to argue just to get their point heard. So what if they stopped being attached to right, and were attached to truth instead? Hmm. Something to think about.
- Stop thinking with your ginormous ego. Is that comment about me? Probably. Oh I saw her post a meme on what I just talked about last week. I know that was directed at me. Clearly, I am the topic of all statuses about the opposite of what I believe in. If you know someone like this, or you think like this, newsflash. It's about them. Not you. Your mom's strange comment isn't even about you...yup. It's about her. I don't want to carry all that around anyway. So I give it back to whoever said it.
- Love humanity. The human race is not perfect. It was never meant to be. But many times, in all forms of religions, it says to love one another. Brotherly love is mentioned with no mention of race, religion, or personal beliefs. We can agree to disagree with others if we remember that we are all here together. Learn and grow from a place of love. It is terribly difficult. I know this. But we owe it to our children to try. Imagine for a second it's them behind the computer screen reading these comments. What message would you want them to read?
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