Life means different things to different people, for some it's a serious business and for some it's a long term vacation. Personally for me, up until my graduation it was a very serious business... I had plans and my life depended upon the fruition of my great plans! Except for a simple fact, to which I was very oblivious of - Life does not really go according to your plans and as my dad puts it "when your plan fails, god's plan prevails". Hmm... Great philosophy, in fact I love the idea that someone sane and responsible has the remote control to my life and it's a relief!!
I'm sure we've all had our ups and downs and especially those who are going through the downs in their lives, and let me tell you they are the most sarcastic and cynical people alive. Of course when something bad happens we loathe in self pity and why me type of soliloquy. But then there is a better way of handling it... Yes ladies and gentlemen pull out your rose colored glasses and flaunt it!! And yea I'm not asking you to live in denial, no way that would be like expecting a surgeon with Parkinson's to operate on a patient!
I'm saying cry all you want, get tired of worrying and then leave everything aside and wear your rose colored glasses! Look at the world as if it is a livid dream, appreciate the most simple and basic things in life. How about starting your day watching the sunrise as you sip into a warm mug of coffee??? At first you'll hear yourself saying oh come on, this is STUPID and Lame and Repetitive!! But just give it a try and do something new and simple everyday just for ten minutes!
Come to think of it whatever made you sad in the first place is making you sad because you choose not to let go and move on... I've never heard anyone say gee this bee just stung me let me stick around till it stings me some more :) yea yea yea I know you get my point!! Anyway when you start appreciating the small things in life like an irritating schedule, the mad traffic, crazy maids or a yard long line at the mall, you start handling the big disappointments in life with more élan! Trust me your irritating dad/mom/spouse will suddenly seem like some innocent cherub that walked the earth and your setbacks won't even seem so profound.
To put it in very simple words try accepting things around you and they will cause you less pain, less anxiety and leave you capable of handling more. So you say yea you know it all don't tell me how to live, what do you know anyway??... You are right! I don't!! And what a liberating feeling that is!! But what's really helpful is that I don't know everything and I really don't have to know it all, it's really ok to get stuck in a traffic jam, get yelled at by my boss (everyone's entitled to have their own bad days, with the exception of days when you are PMSing!) it's really ok if I'm having a bad hair day (after all it's keratin and not some synthetic fibre)... I know you get the picture!!
Just as Adam Smith puts it in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, “The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.”
In short nothing is permanent dummy!! so you better put on your rose colored glasses and get on with life!
I'm sure we've all had our ups and downs and especially those who are going through the downs in their lives, and let me tell you they are the most sarcastic and cynical people alive. Of course when something bad happens we loathe in self pity and why me type of soliloquy. But then there is a better way of handling it... Yes ladies and gentlemen pull out your rose colored glasses and flaunt it!! And yea I'm not asking you to live in denial, no way that would be like expecting a surgeon with Parkinson's to operate on a patient!
I'm saying cry all you want, get tired of worrying and then leave everything aside and wear your rose colored glasses! Look at the world as if it is a livid dream, appreciate the most simple and basic things in life. How about starting your day watching the sunrise as you sip into a warm mug of coffee??? At first you'll hear yourself saying oh come on, this is STUPID and Lame and Repetitive!! But just give it a try and do something new and simple everyday just for ten minutes!
Come to think of it whatever made you sad in the first place is making you sad because you choose not to let go and move on... I've never heard anyone say gee this bee just stung me let me stick around till it stings me some more :) yea yea yea I know you get my point!! Anyway when you start appreciating the small things in life like an irritating schedule, the mad traffic, crazy maids or a yard long line at the mall, you start handling the big disappointments in life with more élan! Trust me your irritating dad/mom/spouse will suddenly seem like some innocent cherub that walked the earth and your setbacks won't even seem so profound.
To put it in very simple words try accepting things around you and they will cause you less pain, less anxiety and leave you capable of handling more. So you say yea you know it all don't tell me how to live, what do you know anyway??... You are right! I don't!! And what a liberating feeling that is!! But what's really helpful is that I don't know everything and I really don't have to know it all, it's really ok to get stuck in a traffic jam, get yelled at by my boss (everyone's entitled to have their own bad days, with the exception of days when you are PMSing!) it's really ok if I'm having a bad hair day (after all it's keratin and not some synthetic fibre)... I know you get the picture!!
Just as Adam Smith puts it in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, “The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.”
In short nothing is permanent dummy!! so you better put on your rose colored glasses and get on with life!
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