Coping With Curveballs

In her new book, Emma Markezic explains how to roll with life’s punches

1 GO HANG OUT WITH SOME ANIMALS

No word of a lie, spend some time in an animal shelter and you’ll feel like the patron saint of puppies in no time. Heck, just spend some time petting your neighbour’s cat.

Animals are genuinely non-judgemental. People can’t be, by default – we’re wired to judge each other, to compare, to appraise. We can’t help ourselves.

Animals simply do not give a shit. If you’re fat, thin, happy, sad, covered in warts, a bit of an asshole truth be told – they honestly don’t care. Or even notice. We’ve bred them to be sentient balls of domesticity. Little parts of their brain are actually hardwired to light up when they see a human – something I don’t think would be entirely cuckoo to stamp into our own genetic code, if I’m honest.