Suddenly we haven’t left our room in days, we can’t stop thinking about how messed up we are, and it’s clear the only friend we have is our dog. How can we help ourselves feel better in these situations? What can we do to turn our lives around?
The best thing we can to do is stop being worrywarts and comparing our lives to this perfect picture in our minds. Maya Angelou once said, “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”
Isn’t that what keeps us up at night? When someone ignores us in the hallway, don’t we worry that it’s because something’s wrong with us and we’re not doing it right? If we have less people wish us happy birthday on Facebook, doesn’t that make us feel like we’re not good enough?
When we believe that we have to become perfect and have everyone like us to be happy, that’s when we’ll have pain. The minute we think our body has to be a certain size to be happy, and we see that it’s not, we’ll have pain. The moment we think we have to have this certain person in our lives to be happy, and we don't, there’ll be pain. If we think we have to drive a new car to be happy, and all we can afford is a used vehicle, we’ll have pain.
Letting go of our expectations of a “normal” life will help us accept each moment of life as it comes. We won’t be crippled because something doesn’t match up with how we think our lives should play out. It’s not easy to let go of our expectations, but it’s worth it. The next time an event happens that sends us into a tailspin, we need to tell ourselves that true happiness wasn't going to come from this outside source that upset us, anyway.
“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” ~Dalai Lama