The manual is usually for your partner, family member or friend and is like an unspoken rule about how they should think and behave – rules that person might not even know about!
When that person doesn’t follow the rules in your manual, you might translate it to mean that you are not loved or respected.
Even though our expectations may seem justified, we have to remember that we can’t control another person as they have the freedom to behave however they want to and so do you.
If we try to control someone else, we find ourselves always wanting and never quite being satisfied.
Someone else’s behaviour shouldn’t determine how we feel, but the way we think about it should.
It is possible to let go of all our rules and control attempts on people and just let them be who they are – even try and understand them from a different perspective. This is how we like to be treated afterall.
We can make requests of people but there is no point in getting upset when they don’t do or act the way we want them to.
Our happiness comes from controlling our own thoughts and actions not by controlling other people.
Do you have an instruction manual for anyone?