Someone once asked me “what if your imagination became your reality? You looked exactly the way you have always wanted. Your account balance is exactly the amount of money you have always prayed for. Your love life is as beautiful as you pictured it. Your ideal weight becomes your reality.
Do you think you would be happier?
Or would you just find new things to hate?
It’s funny how, as human beings, we would have 99 situations working right in our lives but we would choose to focus on the 1 thing that isn’t working, allowing it to dictate our happiness
If only I had my ideal weight, then my life would be perfect. If only I had as much money as I want, I would be happy
Blah...blah...blah...
Do all these excuses of postponing our happiness, of denying ourselves the ability to live life to the fullest, do they sound familiar to you?
About a year ago, I was finding medical school a little difficult, hadn’t really found my footing and so, so many tests came and went not well passed. And to God, there was a large blanket of unhappiness that enveloped me, nothing else mattered. I felt my only source of happiness would be to pass my 1st medical professional examination.
YES, I did pass my examination well and I was happy for a while until something else came up... ACNE!. And I was back to ‘the key to my happiness would be to ...........’. How I had turn my happiness into a door that I would open mentally only when I wished to.
Sifting through the past 6 months of my life, I could not help but wonder why I had allowed something as trivial as ‘acne’ to control my life and emotions. I became a shadow of my happy self. The acne became the centre of my world. It was the only thing that mattered to me.
I had so many other areas of my life to be grateful for: I was in perfect health, doing well in medical school, my finances were okay, I had my ideal weight and my family and friends are the best people in the world.
But why did I not think about all that? Why did I let ACNE dictate my happiness?
I know so many people can relate with this; with how much we have let that one thing- or maybe things- that is not working right dictate our lives, our conditioning, our happiness.
But what if we turned that emotion around and concentrate it on things that are working? What if every time we had the thought of ‘that thing’ creeping into our minds, we counter-attack it with the many thoughts of things that are happening for us;
The good health we have: I see diseases everyday and it’s ugly. Trust me, you do not want to trade your good health for anything.
If you do not have your health, what of those that have died while not living enough: when there is LIFE, THERE IS HOPE. I have seen people that bounced back from a disease that held them down for more than two years. I have witnessed people who lived many more years than their doctors told them they would live for
The peace we have: ask those who have been torn away from their families due to WAR. People who have turned beggars, people who have had their many years of hard work destroyed in a few minutes from war.
The FREEDOM you have: do you know there are many people who are serving jail terms because of crimes they knew nothing about?
There are a thousand things to be grateful for.
What if we can just become grateful for the thousand things while WORKING TOWARDS THE THINGS THAT ARE NOT WORKING?... NO, This write-up is not about being contented with the smallness of our lives or folding our arms and doing nothing when we actually can do something about our problems, it’s about being in a grateful state of mind almost every time, not postponing our happiness ‘till we get what we want’.
IT’S ABOUT BEING GRATEFUL WHILE WE WORK TOWARDS WHAT WE WANT. IT’S ABOUT NOT MAKING OUR PROBLEMS THE CENTRE OF OUR WORLD. IT’S ABOUT CONCENTRATING ON THE SITUATIONS THAT ARE WORKING FOR US. IT’S ABOUT NOT POSTPONING OUR HAPPINESS TILL WE GET WHAT WE WANT, IT’S ABOUT BEING HAPPY UNTIL WE GET WHAT WE WANT.
WHAT IF WE LEARNT TO LOVE OUR LIVES JUST EXACTLY THE WAY IT IS NOW, WITH THE BLEMISHES/
WHEN EXACTLY DO YOU INTEND TO BE HAPPY?
UNTIL WHEN ARE YOU PLANNING TO POSTPONE YOUR HAPPINESS?
BTW: I’m still rocking my acne ‘happily’ but seeing a dermatologist every now and then
