Hate does indeed protect us from pain, and I believe that protection is sometimes needed, but at the end of the day, our pain isn't bad.. When someone says or does something harmful to us, of course we're going to be hurt, it just a normal reaction. And if we can learn to tolerate that pain long enough to get the message - that the other person did something that's unacceptable to us - we can then do what's necessary - tell the other person they hurt us and to not do it again, and if they do, draw boundaries on how much we're willing to take.

I've hated a lot in my life.. Mainly my dad because he wouldn't love me. As a child, I couldn't take the pain, so I devalued him by hating him, that way his opinion didn't matter.. But I was also abandoning myself, the girl who, had it been possible, would have cried that her dad doesn't love her. I've honoured my tears now, as an adult, and am realising my dad's sick, and that what he did was never about me.

I don't hate the human race as there's so much good in people as well.. I used to like to think everyone sucked because it confirmed what I learned early on in life - that people are bad.. But once I found the courage to ask for help, I find that more often than not, people want to give it to me.. Not one single one of us is perfect nor will we ever be, and we don't have to be. But a lot of people do a lot of good in this world, and that's the route I want to take as well. While staying away from people who are too toxic.