Elbert Hubbard said, “Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” We all know this, but cannot help taking life too seriously. Small failures disturb us no end. Small risks scare us. We keep weighing pros and cons of every little step we take. Innocuous comments by people fill us with deep sense of hurt and give us sleepless nights. The result is, we are unhappy and spread unhappiness all around. We invite physical and mental ailments and hasten exit out of our lives.
But the real issue is how to learn to smile in the face of adversities, take failures in our stride and ignore nasty remarks made by others or nasty things done by others. To some people, this attitude comes easily and naturally, but to most, this is something unachievable. No amount of therapy seems to help. Inspirational books and lectures, meditation, counseling – everything seems to have short-lived effect. After a brief period of what looks like definite change, we tend to return to our basic sulking and worrying nature. Our innate nature and our upbringing seem to have sway over us.
It seems to me that most of us are destined to remain miserable. We are simply incapable of any perceptible change. Despite appreciating the truth of what Hubbard said, we laboriously go through the motions of life until we reach the end.
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