26/12/2018
Happy Holidays, my friends! Amid all the chaos of the holiday season, we tend to be a little more introspective, and as the year comes to an end, it’s natural to reflect on what the year has brought us. However, what we don’t think so much about is how we reacted, or how we shaped our lives based on what circumstances we were presented with.
The same event can either be viewed as a horrible problem, a neutral occurrence or possibly even a positive event. For example, over the summer, while I was vacationing at the beach, I left my headlights on and my battery went dead. The next morning, I had the car jumped, but the battery was ruined and wouldn’t hold a charge. I could have been really upset because I now had to deal with real life issues during a vacation. Instead, I was thankful that this happened during a time when I had nowhere to be, no child to pick up from school, no deadlines at work, and I wasn’t stranded somewhere unsavory. In fact, when I took the car to the auto parts chain where I bought the battery, they had me call the store that sold me the battery, and since it was still under warranty, they replaced it free of charge. Now that winter weather is upon us, I have very little to worry about. It’s extremely unlikely that I will have battery problems this winter. My point is that how we react is entirely up to us.
Take a moment and think about something that happened to you this past year. Is it possible that you could have responded differently? Our bodies are sensitive to our moods, producing stress hormones when we overreact in our daily lives. Furthermore, one negative reaction tends to cloud our views of the rest of the day. It’s healthier for us to either fix the problem to the best of our ability then move on, or even find a positive side or a silver lining. The next time you’re faced with a challenge, try to look at it as a learning experience, put a positive spin on it, and be thankful when it is resolved.
