I Hate You!-- How To Let Go Of Animosity Towards Others And Be Happier With Yourself

How often have we come across people in our lives who have, in our minds, done something so terrible to us that we feel the utmost loathing and hatred towards them? Unfortunately, we all can admit to this on more than one occasion.

When we are faced with situations such as these, we basically have two choices, we can either:

a.) Hold a grudge and hate the person who has *offended* you for the rest of your/their lives, orrnb.) Learn to acknowledge what the person did to instill such hatred and animosity, get past it by learning to forgive them and move on with your life.

I'm pretty much all for the latter option. The ego has difficulty with it--as it is SO IN LOVE WITH MISERY--but eventually your ego WILL get over it and you will be a much happier (and calmer!) person in the long run.

I, too, have had dealings with people who have "done me wrong" in one way or another, and have felt such seething hatred towards them. Believe me when I say that it's JUST NOT WORTH IT. I would get so stressed out because of it and just felt absolutely miserable.

After a bit of "soul searching" and reading books like "The Secret" and "A New Earth", I realized that I was *allowing* these people to have this effect on me, and that I have the power to change my attitude make myself happy. It was pretty amazing how quick it just clicked for me; it was as though a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders and I could finally live the happy life I always wanted.

Over time, the people that bothered me the most ended up becoming my friends and acquaintances, which is definitely a better alternative to having enemies.

There are times, however, when I come across people who would typically "set me off", but I am now able to realize what is going on, understand why the person is behaving in a certain way and how I can deal with the situation a little better.

If you find yourself in a situation where someone has offended you or has done something to "tick you off", just take a moment to think about where this feeling of anger is coming from, why you are feeling this way and figure out how to move forward. Meditation can be extremely useful in this respect. More often than not, the offending person is dealing with their own problems and is subconsciously passing their negativity on to you. Kind of like when you have a bad day at the office then come home and yell at your spouse for no reason.

Just remember: WE ARE ALL HUMAN and therefore are prone to human conditions and instant reactions--nobody's perfect--but at least we all have the ability to be more aware of our reactions and handle them more effectively. In the grand scheme of Life and The Universe, all these difficult situations are really just small things and, in the long run, are not as bad as they seem at the time.

Life really is too short--so let's make the best of it and work towards being nicer to each other.

Namaste.