How to Overcome a Victim Mentality

Description

There is a human instinct that can quietly trap us: becoming both the victim and the hero at the same time. Real hurts deserve to be acknowledged, yet pain need not become the whole story of who we are. In Swedenborgian terms, spiritual growth turns us from self-orientation toward a love that looks outward, as “the heart of stone becomes the heart of flesh.” Through the practice of contentment, I picture the hard thing as a rock in a stream: the rock is real, it leaves its mark, and still life moves around it. This is where agency, gratitude, self-reflection, and the better angels of our nature begin to return.