Immune

By default, humans have pretty incredible immune systems. We’re constantly bombarded by tiny little micro-organisms that want to devour our various nutrients in ways that would render us dead. They generally fail because we have such a robust system of fighting them off. It’s incredible because you rarely even realize it’s happening – for every one cold you get, you fought of hundreds of other attacks and never batted an eyelash.

Some people have the misfortune of having an immune system that doesn’t work as well, or even doesn’t work at all. This is a great burden, because those people have to be sheltered from the world. A lack of an immune system isn’t itself deadly – in an environment that was 100% safe, they’d have no issues. Of course, no environment is 100% safe, and these poor souls have to live most of their lives in the safest environments they can.

On the other end of the spectrum, some people’s immune systems are even more robust than normal. They might just be genetically lucky, but there are also things you can do to strengthen an immune system. The right diet and exercise can help. Ironically, so can exposure to more attacks! If you have a normally functioning immune system to begin with, then facing exposure to sickness can train it to be even stronger, both in specific cases (such as the way vaccines work) and more broadly.

Now, all of that is about your physical immune system. But you also have another one – an emotional immune system. And it works largely the same way.

You are constantly bombarded by things that try to make you upset, afraid, or angry. If you have a healthy emotional immune system, most of them you don’t even notice! But if your emotional immune system is weak, then those things will frequently cause you to “get sick” emotionally. You’ll cry, scream, rage, strike, and so on – the emotional equivalents of coughing and sneezing. If your emotional immune system is too weak, then just like people with auto-immune diseases, you’ll only be able to live in the safest of environments, cut off from the world and all its experiences.

And just like with a physical immune system, it is possible for most people to strengthen it deliberately – and in much the same way. Exposure to emotionally straining situations will help you build the system you need to endure them. You should upset yourself. You should hear things you don’t like, suffer though some unpleasant circsumtances, and move through them. Regulate your experiences and focus on how little power they actually have over you.

Build your emotional immune system. The world is a wonderful place, and you don’t want to miss it.