Lunch snubs, bad neighbors and needy in-laws. Advice columnist R. Eric Thomas responds to the bad behavior getting under your skin. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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You're listening to life kit from NPR.
Hey, everybody, it's Marielle.
There are things that happen in everyday life that can just get under your skin, right?
Like you're driving and all of a sudden somebody lays on the horn and then speeds past you, giving you the finger.
You really don't think you did anything to deserve that.
Or somebody makes an underhanded, passive aggressive comment towards you.
These moments might feel small or petty, but they stick with us.
The things that we see as petty.
They can hit us in the heart in a way that feels very real.
That's writer R.
Eric Thomas.
He wears a lot of hats, among them novelist, culture critic, former slate advisor, vice columnist and longtime host of the moth in Philadelphia.
Now it's easy to internalize these moments and just stew about them for days or weeks.
And he gets that.
I am a grudge tender, but I've learned through years of therapy, if you can confidently say to someone else, hey, I actually have this thought or this problem and not feel petty or embarrassed about it, then maybe it's something you need to say.
Otherwise, it's sort of like, maybe I just need to let it go.