Practicing Gratitude
Living in a world where negativity can take a bigger place than positives–it can be exhausting. Luckily, there are counters to this reality. Bad things do happen, dreams don’t always match up to reality, and life takes unexpected turns.
Is that a valid reason for you to give up on your dream? Is that a reason for you to give up on goals?
No. No, and there is a way to make things better. Recognize that the bad things will never cease, there will always be a new wind blowing you into new scenes, environments, and problems. They never relent, such is the way of life. The brilliant thing about it is we have the opportunity to change how we think about a situation.
I’ll give you an example from my personal life, one that I’m sure most of you can relate to (since the pandemic has impacted each of us in mind-bending ways). Picture this: your senior year of college is coming, you and your friends have fervently planned trips and destinations to this place and that one. Then, out of the blue, the lockdowns are announced–there’s a pandemic starting. Most places close down, and classes are moved online. There’s no point of living in the dorms any more, because practically no one is on campus. The isolation begins.
It all completely sucks. So you go back home, because where else are you going to live? The dreadfully dry small town calls back to you. But when you return, your family welcomes you. It’s the first time you’ve all been in the same place since you were a kid. You find all the pieces of who you were before you went to college, when your goals were just starting to be formed.
That is when I realized that while it certainly sucks that I’m being brought back here, there is probably something good to come out of this. Everything happens for a reason, right? Flash forward a few months, and I bought my first car for a price much prettier than one in the busy and expensive Bay Area. Soon after that, I got my license. The steps might have been out of order, nonetheless I accomplished an invaluable life goal.
I understand why the phrase “A blessing in disguise” has been coined. It can be applicable to many misfortune occurrences in life, but we must go on understanding that we have the power to change how we view a situation. Setbacks happen. People fail. It’s easier to give up than to keep going. And yet… if we can simply convince ourselves to keep going, to try to smell the roses while walking through garbage, we might just end up where we want to be after all.
You have the power. The cure for the bad stuff is to practice remembering the things you’re grateful for and what you want to work towards. Good and evil are in a perpetual battle. Who are you going to let win?
