I was just cleaning out my desk drawer in the office and found these steps that I wrote down years ago. I’m glad I found them. I have since applied them to my own life and found that it’s the key to rising above the shenanigans and chaos in the outside world.

1. Take care of your own happiness in the end. Others are always going to bug us or get under our skin or offend us. But our response to that and our negative feelings about that are on us, not them. You can say something and set a boundary but even if they are wrong, lashing out and getting angry only hurts you.
2. Avoid people and situations that drain your energy. Do whatever it takes to get out of it. Sacrifice and suffering is not what life is about. On the other hand, if you adore someone and really have reciprocal love, it’s not a sacrifice to do what they need temporarily. In fact, it’s a joy.
3. Get enough sleep.
4. Give yourself time and space to be alone.
5. Spend time out of the house surrounded by dense natural areas.
6. Talk about your feelings to someone who understands. either a good friend who doesn’t mind or a counselor.
7. Give your attention to and watch things that make you happy. Don’t compromise watching violence just because someone in the household does. It’s bad for your mind.
8. Don’t try to fit in. Just be yourself and the Universe will provide.
9. Be open to meeting kindred spirits. Don’t chase it though.
10. Set firm boundaries with others but don’t build a brick wall unless the individual is seriously destructive or self-destructive.
11. Run your feelings instead of blocking them. Do not embrace them. Feelings are just information.
12. Realize that you are not broken, but it IS GOOD if your heart is. It opens it up to life in all it’s diversity. Pain and death are just part of life/nature.