The experts tell us that the quality and degree of comfort we enjoy in our own homes is very much dependent on the quality of insulation in our walls, basements, attics, window-fittings and points of entry.

Insulation, they point out, when of high quality and properly installed, keeps us snuggly warm in the winter and refreshingly cool in the summer.

It is our first, and most vital line of defence against those elements outside of our homes seeking to find a way to gain entry in order to disrupt the enjoyment we seek in our homes.

The Habit of Developing Thick Skin plays an equally important role in helping to regulate the quality of our lives.

The Habit of Developing Thick Skin is our first line of defence and plays a key role in preventing those elements outside of our bodies from penetrating our defences and disrupting our inner harmony.

It is safe to say that many of us have had painful criticism and harmful comments directed at us, often delivered with the wilful intention of inflicting pain and equally often delivered without malice and with the intention of helping and yet producing an equally damaging result.

We yield no influence over the actions of others nor over the words they choose to use and yet very often we allow those hurtful words to wreak great havoc on our souls and, in many cases, continue do so for days, weeks, months and even years after they have been directed our way.

The Habit of Developing Thick Skin also plays a huge role in reducing the impact from the very words we repeatedly use to malign and criticize ourselves – a habit which, for too many of us, dates back to our early childhood.

There are those who have, sadly, developed tremendous expertise in the art of self-denigration. We have become so skilled at this that we are frequently unaware of the great harm we are inflicting on our own souls.

The Habit of Developing Thick Skin will contribute enormously to our well-being and prevent those thoughts and feelings from penetrating deeper within us and causing further harm.

The Habit of Developing Thick Skin does not give us license to treat others poorly, to be rude and insensitive or to be discounting of others simply because we are no longer plagued by how others think and what they say to, or about, us but rather it will serve, when properly applied, to raise our levels of empathy by teaching us that the hurt we have felt when invectives have been directed our way is not best managed through reciprocity.

The Habit of Developing Thick Skin simply allows us to separate fact i.e. measurable, observable and provable data – from fiction – which is comprised of the adjectives attached to sentences used to demean or attack us.

Having thick skin allows us to sit back and evaluate, with objectivity, and then draw conclusions based on data and not emotion.

Acquiring this habit may not be as simple as it sounds but it is certainly worth the effort for along with all the other benefits mentioned above The Habit of Developing Thick Skin allows us to no longer live our lives based on how others think or feel about us.

And that truly is a liberating gift to ourselves.

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.