I have learned to be a sponge. I don’t fight the negative energy around me. I take it in. I let it soak through, and then I turn it into fuel. Grief, anger, envy, doubt, noise. I do not worship them, but I do not fear them either. I convert them.
If you have grief, wipe your tears, roll up your sleeves, and get to work. Grief will not carry you. It will sit on your chest and make it hard to breathe if you stay under it. So I give it a job. I let it push me into motion. Build something. Fix something. Learn something. The work does not erase the pain, but it gives the pain direction.
If you are angry, do not explode outward. Anchor it. Put it into your craft, your hours, your practice. Be secure in your effort. The most dangerous anger is the quiet kind that builds discipline. It shows up the next morning and the next and the next. It makes you consistent.
If you feel behind because someone else is rising faster, breathe. Everyone has a different clock. Some people make it at 25. Some people make it at 60. Trajectories can climb at different times and still end at different heights. Speed is not the same as distance. Momentum is not the same as staying power.
Think of a gulel, the slingshot. The more you pull it back, the more it resists. Your hand shakes. Your fingers hurt. You wonder if you should release early. But that pull is not punishment. It is stored energy. When you finally let go, the same force that felt like setback becomes distance. This is not motivational poetry. This is physics. The pull is part of the flight.
So I live like that. I let the bad days pull me back. I let the criticism stretch me. I let the delays build pressure. I hold it. I learn. I strengthen my grip. And when it is time, I release. I move further than I could have without that strain.
Being a sponge is not about absorbing poison and keeping it inside. It is about processing it. It is about filtering what hurts into what helps. You do it by moving. You do it by choosing what the energy becomes. You do it by showing up even when your chest is heavy and your eyes are tired.
Use the pull. Use the noise. Use the heat. Convert it. Before you know it, you are not running from the dark. You are burning it.
Kveer, signing out.
