Life is beautiful, don't you think so? ok...Pause, I know a lot of us might want to counter this claim and go on to ramble about the unjust system of life itself, the chaos and bad instances that keep us on edge, and sometimes rob us of our precious sleep. Think again, who made the chaos and all those unsettling thoughts and worries in our minds? still the same us. The truth is, life in itself was meant to be beautiful, but we, in our infinite capacity for overthinking and always wanting everything to be perfect or greedily wanting things our way always, whether good or bad, often turn it into a tangled mess of anxieties.
This brings me to a personal motto about life that has served me incredibly well, which is, "Worry not over what you have no control over." It's a simple phrase, yet its implications are profound. Trust me i've also been at the beck of worry, for most part of my early teens right into my late twenties, until I saw the light and shifted from the darkness called worry. I basically worried about most of the things, both those I control or no control over, and this only caused me more worry and anxiety; my personality as a perfectionist didn't 't help at all.
It made me less grateful, I constantly mounted pressure on myself as I was constanttly comparing myself with others whom i thought had it better than me, imagine worying about why I wasn't born with a silver spoon, why do I have to work so hard from a very young age to make ends meet, why did I have to be the victim, yes I was always in the victim mode, and felt very very unhappy about life, I was blind to better things of life like the loving and caring parents I had, evem though they didn't provided everything i thought needed, I was ungrateful about good health, so ungrateful that I had it better than others, come to think of it, no matter situation anyone think he or she is, always know that it could have been worst.
So you see, worrying over things I had no control over only gave way to more worries. Imagine having to carry a backpack filled with heavy stones every day of your life for years. This definitely would cause a backache and even make some activities very uncomfortable to do, even fun activities. This is what we do to ourselves when we allow uncontrollable worries to dominate our thoughts
my turning point, was having to be a parent myself, did I each the level I had envisioned my parent were before having me, no, but could I provide, care and give all the love in the world to my child, of course yes, and how would I feel if my child felt the way i felt towards my personal life growing up, even though she is having it better than I did, still, she would still see families she thinks are better than she is.
The true liberation comes from learning to identify these 'rocks' and, crucially, learning to drop them. It's not about being uncaring or oblivious to the world's problems. It's about knowing what to actually worry about, a strategic allocation of your mental and emotional resources to things you have the power to control. Only then will you feel peace with yourself and the world around you, appreciate the gift of life, and make the change you can, and also see yourself grow, because you can.
So, next time you feel that familiar knot of anxiety tightening in your stomach, take a breath. Ask yourself, Is this something I can control? If yes, then by all means, channel your energy to make the change you desire, and if the answer is no, take a breath, acknowledge the feeling, and let it go. drop the rock, trust me, you'll feel lighter, freer, and more present to the beautiful life that is unfolding around you, right now. Because honestly, life is beautiful.
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