Daily life struck us with things that concern us; problems in the office, children not doing well at school, your best friend’s wedding, just to mention some. But, should these issues take away your sleep? And if not, what should trouble us?
A couple of days ago, I worked on a podcast with my daughter, and we talked about anxiety and worries in our life. Of course, our world has uncertainty, to the point of keeping us on our toes and affect every aspect of our lives. However, a wise man once said 99% or your daily concerns are things that would never happen, and the 1% left is the one you never pay enough attention to.
Take, for example, our last year. My family started the New Year's Eve leaving New York City from a wonderful Christmas vacation. We arrived at our home and moved on with our normal lives. A month later we overheard something about a disease far away in China, not so important, right?
None of us, and I’m sure most of the world, would bet this sickness would affect us the way it did. Now, more than a year after, most countries are fighting the consequences of the sum of bizarre months, to say the least.
Does this mean we should pay more attention to the news?
Absolutely, NOT!
The news has changed our perception of “normal”. As we grow up, the number of murders keeps increasing, but we take that as the norm; more people, more crime. The horrible attacks in the Middle East or India didn’t shock or even affect us; those happen all the time. Unless one of these “reports” occurred close to your home or dear ones, then it’s not a problem. As a result, our empathy has declined, and we become more cynical/sarcastic individuals with little kindness in our hearts.
Now, this is a real concerned.
If the world lost their capacity to be shocked, impressed, or surprised, we will lose our capability to aspire to a better future, to fight for the right, to improve our lives, and to see others as part of the team. The thin line here is how we achieve this. Talking loudly and signing checks to charities won’t do the trick. Actual work needs to happen.
In our hands lays the responsibility and obligation of developing a better group of humans. I’m not saying a more “prepared” generation, academics isn’t that hard to accomplish and at the end they just represent a step towards productivity that benefit one person. Great for an individual but enough for our world?
We need to be part of raising kind and empathic children, and all of us can join the process. Whether you are a parent (who should work a lot more here), a teacher or a person around kids, share your time with them, talk and listen to their ideas, questions and opinions, tell them your stories and experiences, and above all, enjoy being with them. They will grow and become the ones in charge of our future! Who do you guess will take care of your health when you are old?!?
Another actual concern is our beliefs. Now, it doesn’t matter if you are a firm believer in science or god, but whatever you consider has the answers, make sure you understand and pursue its principals and visions. The void left by the lack of ideals to follow, or a vision to inspire you, will shake the foundations sustaining you while traveling through life.
And since we are here, try to find something you like doing! More often than not, I hear people complaining about boredom during their retirement. It was their dream for decades, but once they achieve their goal, all is empty. If you work on nurturing what you enjoy doing in your spare time (besides resting!), you’ll develop skills and abilities that will support the hours of the days when the labor is gone!
Which leads us to the last actual concern in life. It should be obvious but it isn’t, and that’s a problem. During our years in this world, our mission should be to find contentment; what you have and who you are. Now, being happy is subjective, don’t take that road. Finding happiness, or peace of mind, is a way to see the journey and not the end line. You are right! I’m not the first one stating this, so don’t question it!
Problems will arrive, horrible things happened in the world, and we can’t do much about them. By finding within our experience the light to clear the pace of life, our daily burden should improve. So, worry about the important, forget the nonsense.
Easy enough?.... mmm
So, now you understand why we rather concern about politics!
0