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Quit Whining And Suck It Up, Buttercup!
Why Gratitude Is Important
This is a rather strange piece for me. In my article about helping those with depression, I explained:
Believe me, one of the things I find the most frustrating when I’m very down is the fact that there’s nothing wrong with my life. I know everything is good, and I should be happy, but I’m not. I hate it! You listing all the numerous things the person should be happy about will make them feel worse. They will not suddenly leap up, saying, “My God, you’re right! My depression is cured! Hallelujah!”
So usually, I would say that comparing our lives to others who have it much worse is pretty unhelpful. However, I recently read a great article by LK Smithe, who wrote about a friend who is always going off the deep end. We all know someone who can turn a chipped nail or being seated 10 minutes late for dinner into a disaster akin to Hurricane Katrina.
While most of our perspectives are not so wonky, we can become so caught up in our lives and problems that with the best will in the world, we blow issues up far bigger than they really are. That’s why I had an epiphany that sometimes we need to take a step back. We need to consider if the problems that seem so huge now will still be so in a year’s time. If not, then it’s probably not worth worrying about now.
