Six Things to learn from almost, but not completely, miserable people

We all work to be happy and to make our lives better. We hope to make others lives better too, but it isn’t always easy. Here are a few lessons to be take from a parable about someone who is almost, but not complete miserable.

I knew a person who woke up every morning to read the paper to decide what she needed to worry about. Once she figured out what best to be afraid of, when she was properly disgusted with the world, would she get on social media to share it. Finally, someone told her that the remedy for worry, fear and regret was gratitude. “Humph!” she said. But decided to give it a go.

She began to feel grateful for her flat, her food, her cat and her simple meals. She started to feel grateful for her friends and neighbors.

She notice the news didn’t go away and, if she wanted to she could still work herself into a wickedly worried mood but she did it less and less often.

She posted just as much in social media but there was much more grateful posts than fearful ones.

Here are SIX things to learn from his parable.

We all do this. We all let our minds get distracted and absorbed on things that make us angry or worried, things we have no direct control over. From this you can learn to go easier on yourself. Life isn’t a pass or fail test. It filled of moments set for learning.
What you decide to feed your head matters! If you have a habit of reading the news, or social media, pay attention to how it makes you feel. If you don’t like how you feel when you filling your brain with Facebook and news, then do something different.
Do something different. It can be as simple as deciding to read a book, listen to music or pet your cat. If you don’t like the results of filling your head with news and social media, do something, anything different. Test the results and do what makes you feel the best.
Gratitude is the remedy for worry, fear and regret. Some people call this a meditation but it’s really just a simple act of acknowledging the people and things you are happy to have in your life.
You can always go back. You can always go back to old behaviors and see if you still get the same results.
How you feel is mostly about what you decide to pay attention to. Your thoughts, your mind, your attention, is part of an alchemy that will direct what you do and how you feel. In the short term, it may feel good to preoccupy yourself with bad new. It may even be necessary for making plans but a consistent diet of angry social media posts will have a very destructive emotional effect.

Conclusion

Taking an inventory of our thoughts can yield a wealth of information about our lives. Many of our thoughts are built from habits and can be a challenge to change but it’s not impossible. If you want assistance in making that change I would love to help. I’ve been helping people for nearly 2 decade. You can reach me in the contact form or by phone at (541)216-6696.