You aren't allowed to have bad days

I will explain what I mean by "You aren't allowed to have bad days." with a couple of scenarios.

Scenario 1:

Something about me: I am an animal lover. I attract animals all the time. Stray dogs and cats walk up to me and sit beside me. If I am sitting, stray dogs would literally come and put their head on my feet and relax. This is something I experience regularly during my daily morning walks.

Recently, I had a severe anxiety attack one night and next day morning when I went for a walk, wearing my earphones listening to music on low volume. One stray dog was super aggressive with me and was barking from a distance, I felt like it was ready to attack so I kept facing his direction and slowly moved out.

I found this strange because I’ve never attracted aggression from stray dogs. Then I heard something running toward me. I turned instantly and saw another dog charging at me, ready to pounce like a tiger hiding in a bush. It ran all the way toward me and was about to jump until I noticed it, faced it directly, and took a defensive posture. It stopped, stared at me with its mouth open and teeth exposed, while I slowly backed away.

Two separate dog attacks on the same day for the first time in my life.

I have never, in my entire life, attracted aggression from dogs. I started thinking about what had changed. The only difference was that I had a severe anxiety attack the night before, and it clearly affected my state the next day.

That’s when it hit me how fucked up it is that nature and life itself are against negative and low states. Nature only supports the strong. Survival of the fittest isn’t just evolutionary theory, it shows up in daily life.

When I researched about this online when I came back home, I was proven right, studies have found that people who are more anxious or neurotic are at a greater risk of being bitten by dogs. Think about that. Nature itself tries to kill you for feeling low and weak. There is a reason stress/cortisol ages you like crazy. Your body itself is killing you faster for feeling low. Think about that. One study found that adults with serious mental illness were over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population. There is something in nature which kills people for being weak and feeling low.

Animals are literally wired to notice vulnerability by irregular movements, avoidance of eye contact, tense posture, elevated stress signals (breathing and muscle tension). Literally life trying to eliminate you for having a bad day.

Scenario 2:

I workout out every single day and I am normally loved at my gym. Everybody knows me, women stare at me and try to make small talks, men respect me and ask for my diet and routine. When I enter all the people who know me, rush to shake my hand and greet me. Today was no different but today I was super tired and my body was begging me for a rest day. I was avoiding eye contact with others. I was visibly feeling low. I just sat down after a warm up set and I hear two people at the gym, making fun of me for looking tired behind my back. They thought since I had my earphones on, I couldn't hear it.

I realized that while these guys are super cool to me on my face, they are still jealous deep down and if given an opportunity, they will waste no time, try to pull me down. This is something which I have noticed many times before, If I am feeling low, I attract jealous men, I attract confrontations because that is their chance to shine. Only chance to strike at the king when he is down.

It may not even be a conscious decision, but a subconscious one. There is a reason, men don't open up about their feelings because it exposes people around them. Their women, kids and society itself don't respect them for showing signs of weakness. One show of weakness and your women may never be able to respect you as a man and never be able to look at you the same way. Life expects men to be in control of their emotions at all times. Everything around you could be burning down but still life expects you to be the man and stay in control of your emotions.

When someone who is usually confident, dominant and admired suddenly shows fatigue, withdrawal, or disengagement, status competitors notice immediately. That is their chance to one up you in social hierarchy, they will try to test you, they will try to poke you, try to get a reaction out of you, they will mock you, gossip behind your back and even disrespect you. This is textbook dominance hierarchy theory.

As a man, your value to society is competence based and emotional control is one of the most important signs of competence in men. Doesn't matter how much muscles you have, if you can't control your emotions when shit hits the fan, you are useless to the society. Learning emotional discipline and control is equally as important as working out your body at the gym.