I’ve been really busy the last 10 days getting into my new post (thanks for your patience!), but I’ve been going back over my old archived blog posts1 and with the help of this video, I’ve come back to a realisation I think I’ve lost sight of in recent times.
Know your place
I remember hearing this all the time growing up, not usually aimed at me, but often in jest at various people and, occasionally, in anger at someone challenging authority (often at school!).
While I think it’s irrelevant in a social context today, I think it’s something we could all adopt as a way to remember where we are in the world.
Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of our situation can help us get a real focus on our problems, to know what really matters in life.
Worse than…
People always used to talk to me when I was ill like it was the worst thing in the world, but part of the reason I started this blog was to remind myself that life wasn’t all bad. Even when things did look bleak, I could still find things to smile about and be grateful for.
When I was ill and in hospital, I could be grateful that I lived in a country with free universal healthcare and I didn’t have to worry about the £1,000’s a day it was costing to keep me alive.
When I barely had the strength to get up out of bed and get a drink of water, I could give thanks that at least I had clean, safe drinking water on tap.
When I was on my last legs and desperate for a transplant, I only had to think of the sacrifices made by people all over the world in the name of people they don’t even know to give me pause and realise that things could always be worse.
Tough going
We all have tough times; we all have moments when we look around us and feel like giving up – whether it’s awkward colleagues at work, that project that just won’t get any closer to completion or a relationship that’s gone south and can’t find its compass.
The next time you feel like that, just pause for a moment and ask yourself: is this really the worst thing in the world?
It may be the worst thing in your world, I’ll grant you, but the worst thing in the whole wide world? I’ll venture to say it’s not.
Perspective is key to everything in life and the more we can share the sentiments of videos like the one above, the more we can realise that in the grand scheme of things we don’t have it so bad.
*****
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