I will admittedly get caught up in my own world from time to time. Lately, it’s a lot of the time. I’m not sure if it has to do with living alone and having no one to vent to immediately or that I happen to be really terrible about analyzing something to death in my own mind and never giving myself a chance to get it out. I have this terrible Catholic guilt thing wherein I feel bad for talking to people about how I feel if it’s at all negative. And, no, I wasn’t raised strictly in the Catholic church, it’s just the guilt that has stuck around. I do not say that sarcastically, I’m completely serious.
But before I get into that further and, subsequently, start addressing all the ways we deal with that guilt in my family (did someone say peanut butter?), I’ll stop. Because what’s become overwhelmingly obvious to me lately, and probably you too, is that most of us are caught up in our own world lately. We are worried and preoccupied, and for very, very good reason. And most of us have no idea what to do about it.
While I was running today (one of the two activities during which I do very good thinking) I asked myself to name five moments in the last month that I could remember being genuinely peaceful and happy. Aside from the time I spent with some of my family over the weekend, I had trouble thinking of more. Sure, there have been fun moments and hopeful times and much of it quite sobering, but in my own world I struggled to think of good examples.
While it could be argued that, no matter the scale, everything you observe or take part in has an affect on your life, that can be hard to grasp. It’s tough to remember that even so much as observing good can, in turn, create good for you.
So I want to challenge myself to do that today. I want to find as many ways as I can to be grateful and to remind myself of good. I want to resist the urge to run away to far off places (which is very likely to happen) and absorb the moment knowing that even though I feel like I’m being mowed over, there are good things happening. That even if I cannot see them now, they are there and will come in time.
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Thinking good positive thoughts for you. And as a consolation it was like 30 here this morning, so even the beach is looking gloomy these days.
you know what, I am going to do this same exercise. tomorrow – I have to ride the train to NY so I will have some free thinking time. thanks for the inspiration.
i feel like when i have been down for a while, i really appreciate those peaceful, happy moments. much more so then when i am feeling consistantly good -and those happy moments feel like a given.
Great reflective post. It’s usually better to yield than resist. If running away is a way to yield, then do it! In fact, running and cycling are two of the very things that bring me peace and happiness.
I just wrote a post about keeping a gratitude journal. This helped me a lot a few years back when I was in a major funk. It’s also nice because you can look back on it.
You’re right though – we all need to switch our focus and see the good around us because there’s so much of it going unnoticed!
i love every little bit of this post.
i think it’s SO important to try and find the good in the everyday moments of life. thanks for the reminder.
I’ve been thinking about this because it troubles me that I can’t easily name times in recent history where I felt good, peaceful and happy. When I go to bed I try to think back on the positives before I fall asleep. But I like Mel’s idea of the journal.
Yes, there are sure to be good things out there and some closer to home too. It’s worth keeping in mind – often the simplest of things bring pleasure and happiness and are worthy of gratitude.
Thanks for your comments on my blog. I am grateful for them.
Good goals. I hope you wore long underwear.
You know, I’m big into this sort of thinking – the process really helps me boil off the bad stressful stuff of the day-to-day. Running certainly helps to percolate all those thoughts.
I am grateful for so many things – simple things, to some people I’m sure…but ‘gratitude’ is the ‘attitude’ and that’s all that counts.
They do say that thinking positively will great positivity around you. I know I have my good and bad days. One weird happy thing to me recently was when someone asked me what I’d wish for, outside of winning the lottery, if I could have one wish…I couldn’t come up with one because I had two big things this year, getting into grad school and qualifying for Boston, and both of them happened…I guess that leads to a good happy moment right?
“While it could be argued that, no matter the scale, everything you observe or take part in has an affect on your life, that can be hard to grasp. It’s tough to remember that even so much as observing good can, in turn, create good for you.”
This is so true. While doing volunteer work, I witnessed some very selfless acts, and I’m a better person because of it. I am lucky because I am usually happy and at peace (well, my incorrigible version of happy and at peace). There have been dark periods, but they always pass. Some things you just have to ride out, but others are really just our own creation. I find the best way to be happy and at peace is to live a life that isn’t about myself. I get a lot of satisfaction from trying to be a good sister, mother, friend, neighbor, employee… I know I’m at my lowest point when I can’t find the strength to be there for someone else.
The weird part is that I get no satisfaction from being a good wife, but I do get a certain amount out of being a bad one. Poor, poor Mr Diva. Not! The SOB deserves me!
Maybe we could all get together and hold a mock election for Obama to give us the warm fuzzies again. You know, just for old time’s sake.
The Cougar and I still have this tradition whenever we visit each other: Before we say goodnight we have to list three things we are thankful for that day. She used to do this with me every night when I was a kid. No matter how crappy my day was, I could always think of three things.