Sure things can feel all sorts of ways, but an initial gut reaction is not often the best one. People can choose to see themselves as a victim or they can choos

Sure things can feel all sorts of ways, but an initial gut reaction is not often the best one. People can choose to see themselves as a victim or they can choose to see themselves as having agency. Deciding that feelings are immutable things that can't be touched by reason is a choice too. A layoff can prompt suffering or it can just be a blip between jobs depending on how you prepared someone is for it. A person who chooses to exercise agency is more likely to take steps to prepare because they don't feel they're helplessly at mercy of forces they can't control. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.