Are We Addicted To Being The Victim?
Written by: Shamala Tan, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
What I am about to say may not sit well with many of you. However, I ask you to remain open and let's see where this goes: The world that we live in promotes victimhood and has a perfect ecosystem set up for people to stay victims. Somehow the world honours victims and makes victimhood a really tempting position to be in.
The arena of politics, education, business, society, religion and so on has taught us that it is acceptable to be a victim. This is why such a small percentage of people actually succeed in any sector of life - whether it is in spirituality, finance, business, education, the arts or science.
While the rest of the world remains in mediocracy which is fine if this is what they want. With me so far? The reality is: how many people are striving to be mediocre?
Almost everyone wants to be successful in what they do. So what is it that is stopping us from being better than what we give ourselves credit for? Maybe it is our addiction to victimhood?
According to an online dictionary, the definition of addiction is: "the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma" The key phrase here is "state of being enslaved to a habit". We as human beings have been enslaved by this habit of being a victim.
We hear these in conversations where people feel victimized by the morning rush hour traffic, or they feel victimized by their colleagues or boss or friends or family, or they feel victimized by one's job, or by their relationships, the weather, or situations, the list is endless. It doesn't help when we read the headline that says something like "Woman fell victim to con artist" and we are taught by society to feel sorry for the victim, which then
feeds our unconscious attraction to a victim mentality. So have we indeed got ourselves into one fine mess of victimization?
I know some of you may think, that the person was indeed victimized by the con artist. My reply would be, yes she may have lost money or whatever to the con artist due to her lack of discernment or being too naive, but what is her next step of action? Will she remain in self-pity, or in a poor me mentality? Or will she take this as a lesson and feel more empowered knowing what not to do and what to do the next time?
Maybe we don't want to admit this to ourselves, perhaps victimization is nothing more than a habit of negative thinking, negative feeling, and negative actions. All we need to do is to stop the habit and stop giving in to this addiction. If we want to master our addictions to alcohol or cigarettes, food or procrastination, we must first stop the habit of being a victim. Stop blaming the nicotine, or the sugar, or tiredness or our body or other people. Take charge and take steps to empower ourselves. Strive to be part of the top percentage of successful people and help to increase the pool of successful people [We don't have to be victimized by statistics either!]
Victims blame. Masters take charge. Bad things can happen to anyone but what we do about it will make us victims or masters.
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Shamala Tan, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Shamala Tan is an author, spiritual entrepreneur, and healer. Her work focuses on transforming the lives of others on the spiritual, emotional, mental, and earthly levels. Shamala’s clients include small business owners, holistic practitioners as well as those seeking to find more significant meaning and value in life. Shamala offers laser coaching to her clients on a one-to-one basis or in a group environment, offline as well as online.
