I grew up believing that most of what I felt was down to other people.
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My Dad “made me feel insecure”.
My boss “made me anxious”.
That pushy salesperson “made me uncomfortable”.

It’s such a normal way of talking that I never even questioned it.
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But here’s an uncomfortable truth: no one can make you feel anything.
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Not your boss.
Not your partner.
Not your parents.

Every single feeling you experience is filtered through your own perspective.
Through the meaning you assign to what happened.
Through the story your mind creates in the moment.

That’s why two people can go through the exact same situation and feel completely different things. It’s not the situation. It’s not even the person. It’s the lens you bring to it.

When you truly get this, it means you can take full ownership of your internal experience.

It’s not about pretending words don’t hurt or actions don’t have consequences.
It’s about seeing clearly where your power actually lives.

Because the moment you believe that other people can control your feelings, you hand them the keys to your inner world. You become a hostage to their moods, their choices, their mistakes. You lose your freedom.

But the moment you take ownership, something shifts. You start to see that the power is always yours, which is extremely freeing.

As Viktor Frankl said, after surviving the concentration camps:

“The last of human freedoms: the ability to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

That’s what this is about.
Not denying your pain.
Not blaming or shaming yourself for feeling.
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But reclaiming the space between stimulus and response, that tiny gap where your freedom lives.

The shift is simple, but profound:

• Allowing others to “make you feel” = giving away your power.
• Owning your feelings and perspective = stepping back into your freedom.

It’s a choice you get to make.

It doesn’t mean the hurt disappears.
It doesn’t mean the fear or sadness instantly dissolves.
But it does mean you get to move through it without being a victim of it.

That’s the invitation here: to stop waiting for others to change before you feel okay and to recognize that the power to shift your inner world has been in your hands the entire time.
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Much love,
Alex
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P.S. What I’m reading: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride - Matt Dinniman
​What I’m watching: Quarterback Season 2
​Quote of the week: “The journey of true discovery lies not in finding new lands but in looking through new eyes" - Marcel Proust

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PPS: One of my Youtube videos has nearly reached 30k views. Some comments are really kind, but some other comments are not. Good thing no one can make me feeling anything 😅 Subscribe to my channel if you haven't already.

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