There is a line from Mai-Hime that I used to quote often during my Communications class.
It's spoken by a character I actually quite liked to a character that is the embodiment of someone I can't stand; someone who is intensely angry all the time, about everything to the point where their whole personality is formed around being irritated and short with everyone.
The English translation was a little rough, but my Japanese friend explained it well ...
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Essentially the line is "perhaps if you were less nosy, you would be less angry" ... and there was something so brilliantly succinct about that line that it has stuck with me since 2007.
It's brilliant and something that I think could benefit a lot of needlessly angry people whose mental, physical, and spiritual health are constantly on the decline.
Not everything is your business and not everything needs to be or should be.
𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨.
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The problem with non-critical thinkers is that they don't tend to recognize what is and isn't important to take into themselves.
They think everything is worth their attention, emotional investment, and mental load, especially anything that makes them feel emotions.
Many people are just addicted to a constant inflow of information and attention seeking behaviors just exacerbate that addiction to emotional stimulus that they lack in their own empty lives.
It's boredom and lack of self.
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What Shizuru is saying in Mai-Hime is that Nao is lacking in any sense of self so she seeks everything in the business of other people.
Nao's entire existence is made up of monitoring and investing herself and her emotions in the lives of everyone else because she has no life of her own. She has no lane, so she constantly gets into everyone else's.
I find this is true about people who have very little else to do other than scroll social media just to find things to respond or react to.
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Such people have nothing invested in what they are responding or reacting to, they are just looking for an outlet for their wayward emotions or boredom because they haven't built a life that is valuable enough for them to invest quality time or effort into.
Everyone else's lives or business are of more interest and makes them feel some sense of existing just to be a part of it. It's sad really and very telling.
Such people are ... quite empty and make themselves up of everyone else.
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Learning to mind your own business encompasses a few different ideas, but the bottom line of it really comes down to the amount of energy and emotional investment you put into things that have absolutely nothing to do with you or your life's direction.
I've written before about how people don't change much after high school. The core of their personality forms and their character solidifies during this time.
Having a lack of self and being fixated on other people's business starts there.
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There is a difference between following your path in life and embracing that path and finding that it happens to coincide with you being a vital part of the existence of others ... and just inserting yourself into everything because you have no idea who you are, what your path is, and are so bored that you can't find any meaning in your life outside of piggybacking on the meaning of other people's existences.
Some have a calling and other people are just simply bored and seeking meaning.
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The problem is when you think that any kind of emotional input and output suddenly gives your life meaning.
Emotionally investing in everything that you make your business does not automatically mean your life has taken on new meaning. It means that you're desperately searching for meaning and you believe that emotional response equates to meaning. It doesn't.
Emotions are chemical responses and they can be easily triggered, they don't automatically denote deeper meaning or connection.
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𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴. - Epictetus
Many people use other people as distractions.
Many people use other people's paths to distract from the fact that they don't have one.
Many people get involved in everyone else's business because they have no lives of their own.
Many people look outside themselves because they are afraid to look inside themselves.
Many people invest time, focus, energy, and emotion in everything other than themselves because they don't feel worthy of their own investment.
As the kids say: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪?
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