A lot of people are feeling stress and anxiety. The reason is because they are focused on their problems.
But think about it - Your problems are only about ONE SEVEN BILLIONTH of the world's total problems. So why are you spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about such a small percentage of the world's problems?
I know - because they are YOUR problems.
Right.
But you don't HAVE to think about them so much.
I had a thought. How much is the rest of the world's population thinking about MY problems? 99.99999999 not at all even in the slightest. And maybe a small number of people are thinking about it very VERY little [because they are too focused on their own troubles to be able to have the leisure to fret over mine.] So MAYBE they are on to something!!! Maybe it is not worth all of the heartache we all have.
Also - life is REALLY short. It is much more enjoyable to think about happy things and focus on that. Why make yourself miserable?
Here is a fact. We ALL make ourselves miserable. Case in point: I am suffering from something in life that is causing me great anguish. So I had a long bus ride tonight and instead of learning or sleeping or thinking happy thoughts I devoted the entire trip to thoughts of my misery - making me even more miserable.
Why would I do that?? Am I am masochist??
Yes.
But I don't want to be. So we need to learn to MASTER our thoughts.
And what are our problems? There are a billion people in the world who can't get a decent meal or a clean drink of water. So why don't we focus on the fact that we have as much food and water as we desire [I daresay TOO MUCH food]?
Because we are a bit crazzzzyyyyyy.
I was recently standing outside of the shul in Manhattan and a fellow let out a yelp as his coffee spilled. So I tried to make light of it and said "Hey, we got through Egypt, we got through Auschwitz, we can get through this!"
He gave me a stern look and said "That is a BAD comparison. A VERY BAD comparison."
I am not the argumentative type so I just gave him validation and said "That was a BAD comparison".
But I really think that it was a great comparison. We take our troubles to much to heart when they often aren't the biggest deal.
So take a deeep breath, let go and be happy:-).
It WAS ok, it IS ok and it WILL BE ok.
OKAY?
הוא הטיב הוא מטיב הוא ייטיב לנו!!
