Don’t Take Their Words and Actions Personally
We’ve already determined that evil people lie and manipulate to get what they want. So why would you believe their words about you? If they lie about everything, then everything they say to you is also a lie. In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz explains, “Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds. Taking things personally makes you easy prey for these predators, the black magicians. They can hook you easily with one little opinion and feed you whatever poison they want, and because you take it personally, you eat it up. But if you do not take it personally, you are immune in the middle of hell.”
The effects of living with an evil person can feel impossible to overcome. The husband who spends a lifetime downgrading his wife by telling her she’s ugly, lazy, or useless is a murderer of a different sort. He has murdered her will, her courage, her belief in herself. Evil people can break a person’s spirit without ever leaving a physical mark or scar as evidence. But if you don’t take their actions and words personally, you will turn those scars into armor and shield yourself from any future abuse as you live a life of your personal joy.