Veda looked at her screen, feeling her chest tighten. The message, sent to the whole team, hit hard: "Veda is stupid & her analysis overlooked crucial data and created confusion for the team." It felt personal and humiliating. Her face grew hot, and her hands shook as she hovered over the keyboard, ready to respond.
You don't get to do this to me.
She had experienced this before. She would replay the situation late at night, thinking of things she wished she had said. The frustration followed her home and lingered at dinner. She barely noticed her food, her thoughts spinning, and the ideas she wanted to write down slipped away. Sleep was hard to find; her mind was busy with silent arguments.
But this time, she paused.
She gave herself ten seconds. She thought, breathe in slowly, count to five, breathe out, then decide what to do. This became her way of pausing and creating space between what happened and how she responded.
She pushed back from her desk, walked to the window, and placed her palm against the cool glass. Below, the city moved on, oblivious, indifferent. Keerthana's behaviour was a pebble. She had been treating it like a mountain. She told Herself " In a team where problems are faced together with respect, even the biggest stones become easy to carry. "
That evening, she wrote in her journal:
"I cannot control her respect. I can only control my Respect for myself."
The next morning, when Keerthana spoke to her dismissively during a meeting, she remained calm. She looked Keerthana in the eye, stayed quiet, and took notes. Later, she addressed the work issue directly, staying professional and steady.
Keerthana appeared confused. She was disarmed.
Moral:
You cannot stop others from throwing stones. But you can choose NOT to accept it and take it into ur mind and start crying.
🌱we have control over how we respond to situations, but not over external factors.
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