So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, as one does. And one of the thoughts that kept passing through this brain of mine, is that we as humans have this awful habit of worrying about things that we cannot control. After being a victim of this habit for many, many years worrying about things ranging from whether Jake Gyllenhaal is still single or more serious things like getting a bad grade on an exam, it finally hit me. Why am I wasting so much time and energy and emotion worrying about things that are out of my control. Why do we do it? If we took that time and energy and invested it into something that we could control? Wow. We could accomplish so much, and be so content! Because here is the truth, I have a really hard time with the concept of time. I think it goes by very fast and I think that it is very easy to let it pass you by. I mean, my opinion is hey, we have been gifted this beautiful thing, so why would you not want to do everything you possibly can in one life time? Now I know first hand that worrying about things that we can’t control is a very hard habit to break. But it is important to realize that you and only you are in control of your own happiness and your own emotions. If someone cuts you off while driving, you have the option to fall into the deep depths of upsetting road rage or you could take a breath and say hey I can’t control what just happened but I can control how I react to it, and choose not to let it affect me. And it is hard and it takes practice. Trust me, I was the road rage queen for a while and I’m not proud of it. But that is just one of the many examples of things you will encounter throughout your entire life, that is out of your hands. But you know what’s not out of your hands? Your happiness.
Take a second and think about this scenario. Imagine if right now this very second, someone handed you a documented list of all the calculated hours you have spent worrying about things out of your control. Or the amount of hours you have spent on your phone. Would you be happy with the amount of hours that you’ve wasted? I sure wouldn’t. It would probably make me want to lay on the floor for a long time. But imagine if you were spending those hours being productive, accomplishing things, worrying about things in the present, that are in your control. Even if you spend some of those hours taking in the worlds beauty and feeling grateful for your life. Because I already know that you have accomplished so much already, so why not celebrate that instead of worrying about what you could have accomplished. We all have so much light and potential inside of us, and the opportunity to live outstanding lives. Do you realize how awesome that is? Oh my god we are all so unique and bring so many beautiful things to the table. We are all super frickin cool, and don’t deserve to be treated the way we treat ourselves sometimes. So don’t worry about what you could have done differently that day, or what you did wrong, or what could have happened. Because that is all in the past. You can’t control that anymore. Try spending your time and energy focusing on the now and what you can do today to make yourself happy… Whether that be jamming way too loud to old throwback songs in your car (E.g. All The Small Things by blink-182, Stacy’s Mom by Bowling For Soup or Hold On by the Jonas Brothers. This list can go on forever so I will stop here). Or studying really super hard for an exam, or something as simple as not getting road rage when that person cuts you off.
*(also one I need to work on is accepting the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal will not be single forever and instead of getting upset I just have to appreciate the fact that he is a glorious human bean) (but I’m still working on that one okay it’s hard give me time)
laurenverhage 