Despite what the title claims, this article is not about not caring about anything. If you didn’t care about anything, you would probably be a borderline sociopath, or you’re lying. This article is about learning how to be selective about the things you should and should not care about. Put simply, you don’t need to push away everything you’re drawn to care about, whether it be a person, an idea, or anything in between. But when confronted with these feelings, approach them with a certain degree of skepticism. Balance is important. Learn to balance the issues that are worth caring for, and the ones that are not, or the ones that may be too taxing on you to pursue.
Caring about something also comes with possible negative emotions, such as anger, fear, envy, unhappiness, or disappointment. It’s like yin and yang: The good in the bad, and the bad in the good. Ask yourself, what are your values? What do you care about? Does this really matter to you? All of these are perfect questions to start thinking about the division line of caring. Unfortunately, you shouldn’t care about everything. Your mind and heart’s capacity would overwhelm itself from caring too much, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care at all. Care about what matters to you and helps you grow, and ignore the parts that are rather irrelevant and unworthy of your time. Don’t care about the things that don’t matter, because it will just take up more room and make you suffer more.
Is this worth getting upset about? If no, then don’t. If yes, what can you do? Can you do anything about it? If not, then just let it be. If you can, then do it. I never thought the question of “will this matter in 10 years?” was a fully sufficed reason whether I should choose to be angry or not. You’re allowed to feel the way you do. Sometimes, things will only anger or upset you for a moment, but it’s important to let yourself feel the emotions you feel. Bottling them up will only make it worse; accumulating more and more suppressed emotions is just an emotional bomb waiting to erupt a huge, and possibly disastrous, explosion.
Allowing yourself to not care about the little things that aren’t of much importance to you brings you more freedom than you can imagine. You are no longer tied down to the emotions that hindered your growth, and instead you are able channel those emotions into something that matters more. Something that is actually worth the energy you are putting into it.
How does one know what to care about and what not to care about? Imagine a Venn diagram: Pros are the lists of why you should care, and how it helps you grow. Cons are the possible outside forces hindering your growth and consequences. Where the two intersect, the middle-ground, will help you decide whether caring is worth your energy. Namely, caring about something important comes with the capabilities for growth: Caring about a person you want to have a relationship with, or caring about an idea that sparked in your mind, for example. There is room for something more.
It’s important to care, but equally important to know when it is time to walk away. Having to let go of something you care about is always difficult, and yet necessary to do when it no longer stimulates growth and0 may be overly taxing on your psyche in the long run. Sometimes you can’t do anything about a situation that you put a significant amount of energy toward. Instead of feeling helpless, remember that you tried and you did your part, but not everything goes as well as you would hope. This is a common thing everyone will experience at numerous points in their life. It may hurt for a while, but letting go will leave you open for more opportunities to grow together with someone or make a positive difference in something that ultimately matters more.
