Imagine I decided a particular event was disdainful. Not just that it may cause me some pain or a distressed emotional state. But that I really don’t like when it happens.

Now whenever this event occurs, I find myself in a great deal of misery. Even just the potential of it occurring leaves me anxious and in shackles. Tell me, did I make the right choice?

Perhaps we could argue that there is nothing I can do about it because of the real pain it causes or the like. But is there any reason to magnify this pain in my mind by actively rejecting it? What use does that make?

The truth is we make these choices often. And most of the choices don’t even have to do with real pain. It has to do with the pain we decide to take on in our experience.

Sadguru describes this behaviour in his talk on Impact Theory. It is like hating someone so much only to have them walk by your house every day to work. Why choose to hate such an experience if it happens so consistently?

We always have a choice on how we respond to events mentally. So it becomes our responsibility.

In many events, we have more responsibility over how we interpret it than we realize. We just have to make the decision on what it means to us. The question is, would you rather choose to be misery or joy?