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Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that bad stuff happens, but we don't have to react in a way that makes the experience even worse.

Today's tip comes from Lori Santos in an interview with Ryan Holiday of the Daily Stoic.

Santos shared the parable of the second arrow.

The Buddha asked his followers whether it would be bad if they were shot with an arrow.

Of course, they agreed that yes, this would be bad.

Then he asked if it would be bad, or perhaps even worse, if they were shot again, with a second

arrow.

They said it would be.

The Buddha explained that circumstances were the first arrow.

No one can avoid bad things happening to them.

Whether it is missing the last flight of the day to get home after an exhausting trip

or something worse like losing a job, we can't avoid all the vicissitudes of life.

Everyone will get shot with a first arrow from time to time.

But we can avoid the second arrow.

The second arrow is the suffering we create in our response to the adversity.

Do you snap at the gate agent who tells you the first flight to your destination is the next morning?

Do you call your assistant, waking her up, to tell her you never want to be on the last flight of the day again?

So now she is upset and has trouble getting back to sleep, which leads to her questioning whether she wants to keep working for you.

All this unpleasantness only adds to your suffering. So don't add the second

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