Many times, we approach a situation thinking, “This must be about me.”

Whether it’s someone’s mood, or their recent post on social media, or a new policy at the office ... it’s easy to assume that what we’re experiencing is the world responding to us. That people’s words and actions are a direct response to our own activity.

But it’s important to remember that each of us leads a complicated life with many nuanced connections.

That what people are doing, saying, and sharing might be part of a completely different narrative, and not a coded commentary about us.

(It’s even possible that they’re not thinking about you at all.)