Find the Good, Be the Good
Hello and Happy Friday everybody! I hope your week has been wonderful! We celebrated my dad’s 52nd birthday on Tuesday and had a great time. It was low key, just how he likes things to be. We had a chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake and it was DELISH!
I read something the other day that really stuck out to me and I thought I would share. Someone posted a picture with a caption on Instagram that said, “Love life and it will love you back”. It sort of made me pause for a minute. I thought well that’s not really true because we as people are not exempt from the harsh realities of life. Just this last week we spent the day recounting the horrible events from 9/11. The whole day I saw post after post, picture after picture, and read story after story. Nobody deserved that. That should have never happened. But it did happen. Innocent lives were lost and our nation mourned like never before. 19 years later, my whole day mirrored that feeling. Mournful. Sad. Somber.
Then, I started to really think on it and it kind of struck me differently. If you love life it will love you back. It’s not because your life is capable of loving you back. It’s not that extraordinary things start happening to you and we are now rid of evil things, people and events. What’s the difference? It’s the outlook of it all. Yes, I’m going the glass half full route. If we look out into life with love, we see love. If we look into life with a sad disposition, life will be sad. A lot of it isn’t about what actually happens, but how you view what has happened. I’m not saying that you have to be one of those people that walks around giving hugs and singing “Kumbaya”. I’m simply saying instead of choosing to pick every instance apart to find the negative, accept it for what it is and find the positive. Even if it’s something minuscule.
***((Before anyone even gives it a second thought - no I am not trying to find positives in events of 9/11 - totally not the point of this post))***
Working crazy hours and ready to pull your hair out? Remember, you have a job unlike many unemployed Americans. Kids are driving you nuts and would literally blow up the house if unsupervised? Remember, you and your spouse tried for those little tyrants a long time and finally got pregnant. Being the sober friend sucks and makes you feel like your missing out? Remember, you are bettering yourself by taking strides to improve all aspects of your life like your family situation, your job, and your health. COVID is sucking the good out of everything in life? Maybe it’s showing us what’s really important in life - like family and friends and health. These are just some very random thoughts and instances, but imagine if we could find good in everyday things, especially the annoying and tedious things.
When we start finding good in little things, it spreads out to larger areas of our lives. Cameron and I built our first home a couple years ago and the entire week we moved in, it poured buckets and buckets of rain. Living on a farm with brand new construction, the RED MUD WAS A NIGHTMARE. I was having serious anxiety over all this red mud and my brand new house. Why though? It’s mud. It washes. Yes, it was bothersome. It took much more cleaning and care on our part. The bigger, better thing was that my husband and I were able to build a house and live out a dream of ours! I was letting that damn mud ruin my new house experience because I was so stressed our stuff would be ruined.
I’m 100% honest with you guys - I never view myself as above anyone or anything. I get put out over some dumb ISH… and let it completely ruin my day. I don’t know why I can be like this, it just happens. Finding the good, finding the positives is one of my goals of “self improvement”. It’s easy to put out there, but it’s harder to put into action.
If there is ever an instance where you just can’t seem to find one positive thing in a situation - then be the good. Make it positive. Why not? If you can’t find the good, then be the good. Be a helper. Be a listener. Be a friend. Isn’t that what we should all strive for? Just like this whole mental health BS I deal with… anxiety and depression. It’s either going to make or break me. It sucks and I hate it, BUT, I am choosing to not let it rule my life and to use my stories and experiences to help others. I just feel that deep in my heart, we can all be like this. We can all make a difference.
This is another one of those blog posts where I have really no clue where it’s going, it just comes out. I hope its not too redundant and I really do hope you guys get something from it.
Find the Good, Be the Good - Be kind to yourself and one another - spread love!
All the virtual hugs and kisses you can take - Alexis