Self-pity shows up when we sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, blaming everyone and everything else for a situation that hasn’t worked out the way we thought it should have. We turn ourselves into a victim of circumstances that are somehow always beyond our control.

While a good sulk sometimes makes us feel better, it is probably not a good idea to prolong feeling sorry for ourselves for any length of time; it is easy at that point to just keep sliding down into depression and despair and feeling like nothing will ever works out for us. It may be more beneficial to instead decide on a plan of action. Notice, we didn’t say reaction which means allowing our emotions to dictate our choices.

While emotions are important, there are times when we need to consider using magick to make positive changes within ourselves instead of trying to find something or someone outside of ourselves to fix things. Taking action is a positive step that many of us struggle to accomplish; possibly, the first magick we might consider is increasing our confidence that we can make good choices for ourselves.

Choosing action allows us to gain perspective. It is similar to wanting to help a friend deal with a bad situation; sympathy takes control away from them as you are handing them tissues or acknowledging how awful it was. Empathy, on the other hand, lets you understand how they feel but lets you support them while they work through what has happened.