I had a bit of an epiphany when I dozing on the plane on the way back from Tasmania- wanna hear it? It’s pretty ground breaking.
Our insecurities are the biggest source of our own unhappiness. Wooo!
If we actually had no one else’s expectations, achievements, benchmarks, standards, comparisons, opinions, judgements and input to cloud our general balanced state, we’d be totally obliviously happy. I was sort of lying there in bed in the early hours of Saturday morning- my 8-week old niece cooing in her sleep, snuggled against my hip, my sister dozing to my left, me reading my book, my sister’s husband working away in the next room, and I asked myself:
“Would I really want to be living someone else’s life right now? Would I really want to look like anyone else or be having an experience that’s different to what makes up my life right now?” And the answer was “Nuuuuuuh.”
There are always going to be aspects of other people’s lives that drive up my envy-barometer. There are qualities in other people which I’d love to be able to emulate and develop. There are times in my own existence where I feel frustrated and itch for traction and movement. But taken as a whole, I love the people, coincidences and events that litter each day of my life. I think taken as a whole, we can see the value in all the life experiences we’ve gone through until this point—and the fact that we’re grateful for all the good stuff, and most times (particularly with the benefit of hindsight), able to extract the gold nuggets that flow from the really challenging, dark times 🙂
