hopelessness...and sometimes just getting an overall depressing view on life.
SO. I've decided to stop overthinking things. I've decided for now, I'm going to keep things simple and positive, because I think that's the best way I can live for right now. And in general, I think keeping things simple and positive is a good way to go. I can NOT be complaining right now, I have it waaay easier than a lot of other people do.
In fact in my anthropology class, we've been reading books about different cultures (The people of Samoa, the Bedouin in Egypt, heroin-addicts in San Francsisco), and one theme seems common through at least some of the books. The theme is allegory (dictionary.com it). A way of, funneling your emotions and making sense of the world through our experiences. We all have common human emotions, sadness, happiness, etc. And we all kind of... find a way to make those emotions part of our lives. It doesn't matter if your rich or poor, either way you're going to find a way to be happy sometimes...and be sad other times. And if you think about it this way, you start realizing...being sad...while it's a natural emotion that we all have, isn't something that's defined by our situation. Having more money isn't going to get rid of it. We all naturally find a way to work happiness and sadness into our lives....and if we can realize this, I think it's easier to do the opposite...and work sadness OUT of our lives.
Does that mean we'll never be sad again? of course not, it's an inevitable thing...If suddenly someone close to us dies, it doesn't mean we can just wish away our feelings and be happy through it (not to mention that's kind of rude). But in general, in our day-to-day lives, we can workout whats really worth being sad/depressed about. Is being sad about something really going to get you anywhere? Is it worth it? At the same time, there's so many wonderful things that we should be happy about.
Being alive is numero uno! We're not some lifeless corpse, laying in a grave somewhere. A LOT of people are like this right now, go checkout your local cemetery if you don't believe me. Our bodies aren't lifeless/motionless, we're ALIVE, we can go take on the world if we wanted to!
numero dos is the people close to us...family...friends... The people who care about us. It's pretty easy for people not NOT care for someone. It's simple for someone not to talk to you, not to care about your problems, not to want to help you, not to be happy for you, and really not care if they ever see you again. But, unless you're Scrooge, we all have people in our lives who don't get caught up in ignorance/apathy/not caring. They're the people who actually care about us, want to see us succeed, love us for who we are, listen to us when we speak, try and help us reach our goals. These are the people in our lives that we need to be thankful for.
Also, remind yourself...Whatever your situation is, it could ALWAYS be worse. Even in some of the worst scenarios.. If for some reason you get in a crash, and you have to amputate your left arm... you'll now have 1 arm the rest of your life. Consider this though, there's people out there who've never had ANY arms. So you're lucky not only to have the one arm you have, but that you had the 2 arms as long as you did. I know it's a strange analogy, but I think you get my point. There's always someone in a worse situation than you.
Anyways, I think it's odd. Sometimes I get in this frame of mind where I think, "It's so hard to be happy". But I'm getting into the habit now, where as soon as I start thinking that, I can't start realizing...It's actually not. It's actually really easy to be happy, and that's the beauty of it. It's so easy to be happy... There's a ton of ways to get there... Here's just a few:
1) Talk to an old friend who knows you (just call them!)
2) Listen to some upbeat music (jason mraz, switchfoot, journey, the darkness)
3) Go look up some inspirational videos or quotes (ted.com is a great place for videos)
4) Simply try to change your thinking, try to look at your mood from a different perspective (like I was talking about above), realize what you're thankful for.
5) Go outside. Fresh air really helps me...Especially if it's sunny outside, it's almost impossible to be down. Sitting outside or going on a short walk at night can be relaxing too.
Anyhow.
I just needed to write all that down, collect my thoughts. I finally kinda-sorta talked to someone about the things I was thinking about, and they really helped me a lot.
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