One of the things that you cannot simply avoid in life is insults.
I mean, it starts from the moment you start understanding the language and it gets absolutely worst when you make friends.
For some reason we humans are created in such a way that if we are friends, we must insult each other, we have to make fun of each other!
It’s so embedded in us that it’s hard to imagine life without insults.
Even if you try to be the most righteous human being on earth and never hurt anyone, there will still be that one friend who will insult you.
Or it might be a random person you meet somewhere in the street.
As a little kid, I actually suffered a lot, because whenever I would be insulted, I didn’t know how to react.
Of course, I would feel bad and get angry and simply would want to hurt him as well.
But it wasn’t always the best strategy. In fact, its the worst strategy because if you fight with everyone who insults you, you will not have a LIFE!
And the whole point of an insult is to hurt you, to make you feel bad, to make you feel inferior.
So if someone walks in and makes fun of your height, for example, you are taller than a giraffe, or are there even pants for your size!
If you even get slightly angry and insult him back, it means the insult has worked out! You got offended! The person who insulted will feel good!
Actually, the reason why people insult in the first place is to feel good about themselves!
They are insecure, they are not confident about themselves, so they try to put someone else down to make themselves feel superior.
You probably came across people who constantly insult everyone around them, I really had hard times understanding these kinds of people in the beginning.
Because when I look at my life, it’s filled with work, projects, and my brain is filled with millions of things that I have to figure out and I wonder why would someone fills his brain with so much Bullshit!
It turns out that’s how they fill their insecurity. They try to assert themselves at the expense of others.
But you know what’s even worse than that, responding with absolute silence!
A lot of people get angry but do not reveal that and keep it within themselves, and then worry about it for days to come if not weeks.
Why did he say that to me!
It’s unfair!
I do not deserve that!
You will keep repeating that inside your head over and over and will fill yourself with anger and hatred!
And that’s the worst way to respond because you will simply end up only hurting yourself!
I guess the question you have in your mind is if reacting to the insults is wrong. If staying quite is wrong, then what should I do?!
Well, you have to show to the other person that you absolutely don’t care about what he says by accepting it and exaggerating it!
So if someone would tell you, you are taller than a giraffe. you can respond with something like:
Yes, of course, be careful because I might step on you without noticing that!
You are accepting the fact that you are very tall and exaggerating it to the point that you might step on him like you are some kind of a giant!
You turned the insult around and that puts you automatically above him!
His attempt to put you down didn’t work because now he denies the insult by agreeing with you!
As Epictetus once said,
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it is what matters!
You can’t control people, you will always come across people who will insult you, but what you can do is to control how you react to it!
The key is to never take anything personally!
And now it’s your turn, what do you think? How do you respond to insults! Lets me know in the comments below!