I have some new posts lined up but wanted to share an oldie on gratitude. Hopefully all of you get to enjoy some time off with family and friends. Have a Merry Christmas!
Originally posted December 31, 2021
In the post “100% Chance of Death: Do You Take The Risk?”, I offered up what I view as step 1 in the process to improving health. That post is focused on acknowledging our limited time in this human existence and how we want to approach it.
We can choose to accept responsibility for all of our actions and perceptions along with the corresponding consequences and results which means that we can affect positive or negative change in our lives. Or, we can choose to believe we have no choice or impact in how our lives turn out and lay blame on others, genetics, fate, etc.
It’s easy to take credit and accept responsibility when things are going well, but not so much when they aren’t. Whether we want to believe it or not, we have made the choices that have led to our current state. There are things that happen in life that are definitely beyond our control such as another person’s actions and words or perhaps a natural disaster, but how we choose to respond to these events is all on us.
For example, if I get into a relationship with someone and that person cheats on me or turns out not to be who I thought they were, I have to accept the fact that I chose to be with this person and put myself into the position where this can happen. It does not absolve the other person of their actions, but nobody forced me into the relationship.
I have to own my participation, and I have to own what I choose to do and how I act once I know what I know. I also have to choose to forgive to move forward, and that includes forgiving myself which for me is harder than forgiving others.
Step 2 in my personal approach to healthier living is simply having an attitude of gratitude and goes hand in hand with step 1. It’s easy to be grateful when times are good, but do you also express gratitude in the bad times?
I should point out that we shouldn’t be so quick to label things as “good” and “bad” or “happy” and “sad”. Using my example above, is it really “bad” if a relationship ends because of another’s actions, but that ending gets me out of a bad relationship and I now have the opportunity to potentially meet the true love of my life?
And should I not be grateful for having had that experience with a “bad” person in order to now recognize warning signs in another partner so as not to make the same mistake again? I also now have the perspective of being with a “bad” person vs being with a “good” person? How would I truly know if I was in a “good” situation without having been in a “bad” situation?
None of this is to say that we should seek out unpleasant people or situations, those find us easy enough. But it does mean that we should feel the full range of emotions from the highest of the highs to the lowest of the lows throughout our lives.
We need to recognize that it’s natural to feel sad, anxious, or depressed for a while, but we can decide how long we want to remain in that emotional state. Unfortunately, in our current world, being sad or depressed means there is something wrong with us.
We try to numb our minds with alcohol, drugs, medications, junk food or anything else that temporarily makes us feel good instead of just accepting the emotions and dealing with the issues. Nothing lasts forever so why should the “good” times or the “bad”?
We go through life wishing we could fast forward through the “bad” times to get to the “good” times not realizing that mindset means we are wishing our lives away faster. We only have so much time in these bodies after all.
Ironically, because we put so much focus on the wishing the “bad” away we tend to see more things as bad and create our own doom loops wishing more and more time away. How many times have you said, “I can’t wait until this week/month/year is over!”?
There is a yin and yang balance to life. We cannot have light without darkness, pleasure without pain, and good without the bad. The key is to understand that these opposites actually complement each other creating a more balanced existence. If we had nothing but good in our lives, we would soon take feeling good for granted, and would need ever greater “good” things in order to keep us feeling good.
I believe one of the major causes for growing anxiety in the western developed world is that we have made life too easy and convenient. Now, relatively insignificant happenstances easily disrupt our mental state, and throw us into a complete tizzy requiring intensive therapy and medications to muddle through life. We need real challenges in order to keep these things in perspective, and with the totalitarian COVID response, we have the first real challenge to existence in a very long time.
While I rant about the wrongs being perpetrated by politicians, bureaucrats, big pharma, and the media in these posts, I’m actually grateful for this experience. I have the opportunity first hand to see how easily a once relatively free country can slip down the slope toward totalitarianism. Would I rather it not happen? Of course!
I’m quite concerned about the increasingly insane measures being taken against populations and the passivity of the people being targeted. Our founding fathers in this country went to war over far less, and we’re seeing the seeds of major atrocities being sown that aren’t too dissimilar to those discovered after WWII.
But I’m grateful for this experience as well as every past, present, and future experience that have and will continue to shape my life. After all, it is up to me to decide how I want to respond to the actions of the loonies in charge. This has pushed me to finally do what I’ve thought about for a long time which is to start this blog.
I’m grateful for the likes of Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, and Rochelle Walensky. We get a chance to see these sociopaths acting in full display (more on that in future posts), and we’ll hopefully learn how to prevent people like them from gaining power in the future.
I’m grateful that some highly influential people recognize what is happening, and are trying to stop it before it goes further. I’m also grateful for the people who pay attention to them and who are also spreading the word.
I’m grateful to be able to still choose to live my life as I see fit, and will jealously guard the ability to make choices for myself. It’s pretty simple; don’t steal from or hurt others. Outside of that, people should be able to do what they choose.
I’m grateful to have this platform to share my rants with people who care, and who I hope are also trying to find ways to speak out and stand for freedom.
I’m grateful for my family, friends, and every person who has come into my life. Not all of them are still a part of my life, but I’ve learned something from all of them.
And I’m incredibly grateful for you choosing to take the time to read these posts. Without you, this blog would be little more than a diary so I thank you.
I don’t pretend to have all of the answers to life, health, or anything for that matter, but I hope that what I share at least gives you another perspective on life and the scenarios playing out in real time. One day we’ll emerge from these dark ages, and I’ll be grateful to focus this blog on more positive aspects of life and health.