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The sun has not quite risen yet, and the sounds I play at night are still droning on. It’s dark, quiet. I love it this way.

Soon, I’ll ascend from my bed, drink coffee and begin my day. Laundry is on the schedule, and I also have to bake cookies.

I couldn’t do this about eight years ago – I didn’t think I could do anything. I had given my power to people who didn’t love me, and they enjoyed their little feeds.

When I redirected my life…creating art, cleaning and being alive became a lot easier. I put my foot down, cut off the leeches…and worked on healing myself.

I am not angry with anyone, I have a sense of calm and contentment now. I wouldn’t have healed if I continued allowing others to control my every move.

It sounds weird, but it’s true. When someone says something to trigger you, and you react poorly…that’s exactly what they wanted. People were stealing money from me, threatening me with homelessness, attempting to fight me for no reason at all, lying to me and on me. You name it, it happened.

It brought me to realize even healed and having worked on myself…the same individuals still try their games…and it’s ineffectual.

While I didn’t verbally or physically lash out, I raked my mind with why and it drove me mad.

After the dust settled from a handful of major events, I worked on ignoring people…or bringing up why they felt the need to be cruel. Then I learned a lot of people do not want to change…how I feel about it will help better myself. So I worked on understanding and remembering how much power no one has over me.

Most of the stress I felt was from worrying about what a family member said or would do. Isn’t that funny?

I hope people begin to see how much control no one else has over their lives.