John Picciuto explains why it’s easy to get into a rut of negative thinking — and how the little moments of everyday life can turn things around.
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The reality of life is that it’s comprised of equal parts joy, and equal parts misery. The problem with that reality is that we are, for one reason or another, engrained with an innate ability to simply ignore all of the happiness surrounding us in our everyday lives and focus primarily on what’s wrong, what we’re missing. It is as if for some unknown reason we can seem to only find ourselves as happy looking back. A week ago, a month ago, a year ago, it all seemed so much better, so much easier. Looking back we find ourselves searching through events and moments and they seem like the only times we’ve ever been happy.
The fact is, life is not just about huge life experiences, like having babies, getting married, or losing a loved one. Those are just the moments that when they whiz by they stick with you. Happiness is about the every day, tiny, minuscule things that make up your life.
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I think there’s a lot of times in life where peoples visions of what’s positive and negative around them gets clouded. It’s like occasionally during life things zip passed you and it takes you a minute to realize how quickly life can pass you by. Think about for a second when you were a kid and you used to fast forward on a VHS tape…The images and scenes would be whizzing by you but you were not really seeing any of their importance or what they mean. Or, a certain of those images stick out and stick with you whether they are positive or negative. When you’re stuck in this hyper speed of life sometimes it’s really difficult to take time to appreciate the things around you, to understand that things might not necessarily be as bad as they seem. I’ve always found that it is easier to be negative. It’s the scape goat, an easy out. If you’re choosing to look at things in a negative light I get that, I’ve been there I do that. Truly it’s much harder to look around at the mundane, everyday “B.S.” in our lives and see blessings. The fact is, life is not just about huge life experiences, like having babies, getting married, or losing a loved one. Those are just the moments that when they whiz by they stick with you. Happiness is about the every day, tiny, minuscule things that make up your life. The funny thing for me is when I look back at the events that have had the biggest impact on me they’re usually some small, really almost accidental event that you would never realize was going to stick with you until time passes that moment by.
It’s sometimes very easy to become complacent and downtrodden with negative life thoughts. It’s easy to go there. I’ve gone there so many times it is easy to lose track. It’s simple to understand how or why we go there and end up in that place where we’re just in a rut or a funk. What you need to do is take the time to look around your life and take stock of the truly remarkable things you have. How blessed you are to have friends, family, and maybe even a roof over your head. It’s easy to complain about things like money, jobs, relationships, or the lack there of but the reality is we’re so vastly lucky that we don’t even take time to realize this. Perspective is one of the most important powers we have in life. The ability to wake up every morning and smile even if life is currently taking a huge dump on your head. Understand that the negative things in life happen to act as learning tools. They’re the moments that let you realize how truly precious and important life is, and to really take time to stop and realize just how lucky we all are.
Photo: Mojpe/Pixabay