Life is process and how to live out that process is becoming quite an art. So many people want to interject their ideals or what they call suggestions. So much nonsense in politics, at the job, in our families, well in life!
Observe don't Absorb
Practicing the art of Observing versus absorbing could make the difference between living encouraged versus living oppressed. Observing takes on the quality in being aware, watching, noticing while Absorbing is to take in or engross entirely. If I can stand back, in a sense, and watch things transpire without becoming so emotionally tangled in the web. To observe is t strengthen the boundary muscle.
In the mental health field I would compare it to being oriented times 3; Oriented to person, place, date, and time. When oriented observation becomes a catalyst to my awareness of the moment. A Buddhist quote goes, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. That process happens when we observe don't absorb.
Absorbing on the other hand is as if I were a sponge allowing the emotionality to infuse my very being. To allow others to dictate how I feel or how I will act or my decisions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapist believe thoughts lead to feeling feelings lead us to action. I add on actions lead character. In my practice I work with clients to overcome the absorption of judgment, abandonment, disappointment, of racism, of hurt and pain. The absorption (s)have robed life from far to many who have allowed the infusion of what others think matters or what others say matters.
I had a child, age six, come to session. On my desk I had a little yellow duck. The child was fidgeting with the duck and began to ask me questions of the duck. One of the questions was why does the ducks not get wet. In my very limited understanding of ducks I knew enough that the oil on the duck's feather makes them waterproof. "Oh," responded the young lad "We should be like the duck and not let madness get inside of us." I thought to myself out of the mouth of babes: Observe don't absorb.