The people in your life who are difficult - who prod you, poke you, annoy you, or sometimes are downright mean to you - are called “petty tyrants” in some shamanic trainings. These petty tyrants are there to make you face your shadow self. This doesn’t mean you go all love and light and make like a doormat for them because everyone deserves care and kindness. It means you often have to connect with parts of yourself you find very uncomfortable so you can face the petty tyrant and tell them to fuck right off out of your life. It’s about value and self-worth. That’s what tyrants do: they force you to find your value and self-worth; your purpose and your grit, and this always has to come from inside (even if stoked externally by the tyrant). No one can tell you what your value is except you. How you then choose to exercise that new-found power is up to you. Love and light is  also  part of your value and worth as a human being who has choice. Choose wisely. But never, ever, give up your p