Life is full of joy, happiness, disappointment, self doubt, elation, and a wealth of other emotions that are felt each day. They happen suddenly and unexpectantly at times. Some are so small and so trivial that we spend very little time thinking about them after it happens. This seems to be most accurate about the small happy things. Somehow the small difficult or disappointing things we seem to dwell on and in our mind turn them into huge problems which we later discover are nothing.
As humans we are rather conceited beings. Somehow or for some reason we believe deep within ourselves that the world revolves around what we think and what we do. We might concentrate on someone’s reactions to something we’ve said or done. We read more into them than what they actually are. We analyze what we said or what we did. We waste minutes, hours, sometimes days, thinking of how we should have said or done something differently. Only after time passes do we realize that we are the only one that even remembers the exchange. In fact the other person would be shocked to find that we have spent so much time dwelling on such an insignificant interchange.
Other inconsequential things happen during the day that can really bring us down. For instance, running late for work, getting in your car and remembering that you have to get gas. Or maybe not being able to find a parking space, someone cutting you off in traffic, or thinking you had that bell pepper in the fridge only to find it is well past its prime. These small little things happen and it can ruin your whole day. Why me we cry and shake our fist at the sky!
Yet when something pleasant happens, we might smile and appreciate it. But it doesn’t seem to carry the same weight as the bad stuff or the inconvenient stuff. I want to take time to appreciate the good things. They don’t have to be huge things. I have a wonderful life, an amazing and loving husband, a good job, a wonderful boss, coworkers that I consider true friends, and family that I love and that actually love me right back. There really isn’t anything that I truly truly want that I couldn’t go get.
So the next time something crappy happens I will try to be better about letting it roll off of me and just go on about my business appreciating all the good stuff that fills my life each day.
“As I go through all kinds of feelings and experiences in my journey through life — delight, surprise, chagrin, dismay — I hold this question as a guiding light: “What do I really need right now to be happy?” What I come to over and over again is that only qualities as vast and deep as love, connection and kindness will really make me happy in any sort of enduring way.” – Sharon Salzbery
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