Each person has his or her own way to deal with pain.
After something bad happens, some people dive into work. Others cannot stop eating and others prefer drinking.
A few months ago, after I went through a breakup, I refused to dive into work, food or alcohol. Instead, I decided to handle my sadness with reading.
I’ve always been critical of self-help books, but at the time, I must admit that it was one of these self-help books I read that helped me to get through what I was going through. Especially because one of the challenges proposed by the author was that, each day, regardless of how I was feeling, I should write down something I was thankful for.
With great reluctance, I started the task.
The secret, apparently, is stop complaining about what you don’t have and start appreciating what you do have. Sounds horribly cliché, but it makes all the difference (and probably explains why self-help books sell so well).
The best part is that even on really bad days, when you think your life sucks, you should be able to find things to be thankful for.
According to that author, in these dark days, you can focus on basic things, like being thankful for the clothes you are wearing, or for the food you are eating, since pretty often we forget about the thousands of people who have nothing to wear or eat.
As time went by, it became easier for me to find new things to be thankful for. It also became clear that being happy is a lot easier than being sad. And today, I am thankful for that silly self-help book that helped me — and thankful for time, which is the only thing that heals almost everything. If it doesn’t heal completely, at least it makes you feel a little bit better.
With Thanksgiving approaching, I propose we take some time off the complaints and start thinking on the bright side of things.
I am not going to lie here, I cannot stand people who are positive 24 hours a day (especially when they want to show this on Facebook). To me, it is humanly impossible to be positive all the time. Still, I strongly believe that most of the time you can choose between whining about something that is not working, or focusing on what is really going well.
Do you hate snow days because it’s hard to drive? OK, that is understandable. But think of the majority of our international students, who don’t own a car and need to walk or ride their bikes to school (and to the bars), even when the temperature is in the lower 30s. That sucks more than driving in the snow, trust me.
It’s the end of the semester and you have a gigantic amount of assignments to do? Of course you do. So why not just try to be grateful for another semester that is coming to an end? That means one step closer to our graduation day. One step closer to become part of that small percentage of the population that finishes college.
So at least for this Thanksgiving break, no matter where you are going to be or what you are going to be doing, try to embrace the self-help book cliché, like I did, and dedicate some time to do only one thing: being thankful.
After something bad happens, some people dive into work. Others cannot stop eating and others prefer drinking.
A few months ago, after I went through a breakup, I refused to dive into work, food or alcohol. Instead, I decided to handle my sadness with reading.
I’ve always been critical of self-help books, but at the time, I must admit that it was one of these self-help books I read that helped me to get through what I was going through. Especially because one of the challenges proposed by the author was that, each day, regardless of how I was feeling, I should write down something I was thankful for.
With great reluctance, I started the task.
The secret, apparently, is stop complaining about what you don’t have and start appreciating what you do have. Sounds horribly cliché, but it makes all the difference (and probably explains why self-help books sell so well).
The best part is that even on really bad days, when you think your life sucks, you should be able to find things to be thankful for.
According to that author, in these dark days, you can focus on basic things, like being thankful for the clothes you are wearing, or for the food you are eating, since pretty often we forget about the thousands of people who have nothing to wear or eat.
As time went by, it became easier for me to find new things to be thankful for. It also became clear that being happy is a lot easier than being sad. And today, I am thankful for that silly self-help book that helped me — and thankful for time, which is the only thing that heals almost everything. If it doesn’t heal completely, at least it makes you feel a little bit better.
With Thanksgiving approaching, I propose we take some time off the complaints and start thinking on the bright side of things.
I am not going to lie here, I cannot stand people who are positive 24 hours a day (especially when they want to show this on Facebook). To me, it is humanly impossible to be positive all the time. Still, I strongly believe that most of the time you can choose between whining about something that is not working, or focusing on what is really going well.
Do you hate snow days because it’s hard to drive? OK, that is understandable. But think of the majority of our international students, who don’t own a car and need to walk or ride their bikes to school (and to the bars), even when the temperature is in the lower 30s. That sucks more than driving in the snow, trust me.
It’s the end of the semester and you have a gigantic amount of assignments to do? Of course you do. So why not just try to be grateful for another semester that is coming to an end? That means one step closer to our graduation day. One step closer to become part of that small percentage of the population that finishes college.
So at least for this Thanksgiving break, no matter where you are going to be or what you are going to be doing, try to embrace the self-help book cliché, like I did, and dedicate some time to do only one thing: being thankful.
