“Damn, this rain is going to knock down my building” – I think to myself as I stare through the window.
Winters are depressing in Belgium.
Days are either gray, rainy, windy, or a combination of all.
The sun goes down at 4 p.m.
Vitamin D pills are my daily jam.
And yet.
Nothing. I can’t scoop anything positive out of it.
Why am I telling you this?
Because I still get to do everything I need/want to do. Despite.
Something that caught my attention when I first moved here was how life doesn’t stop because there’s an obnoxious downpour outside.
People put on rain pants and cycle places.
And they populate every square meter of greenery as soon as there’s a ray of sunshine.
I believe this is a mindset.
Accepting conditions when they are not optimal and pushing through anyway.
Appreciating an opening sky and soaking up every bit of joy.
I’ve started doing this exercise:
For every negative event, I come up with a blissful side effect.
Example:
A few days ago, I dropped a glass and covered the floor with a thousand shattered crystals.
That turned into an unexpected trip to my favorite furniture shop (no names, IYKYK).
The more I kept doing this, the better my outcomes felt.
Like
A broken glass = an afternoon in what could essentially be a theme park for adults?
I’ll take it.
You may be thinking this is turning into plain stupidity if you kept reading to this point. I won’t blame you.
But nothing will change.
The shattered pieces will not become whole again.
We can’t choose what happens to us, for the most part. We only have power over how we react and what we do after.
You know what they say…
…When life gives you lemons, make lemon Kool-Aid.
And cheer to it.
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Until soon,
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Life is so much better when you face it with this attitude. I have lived so much of my life in a depressed and super anxious state and it has taken a toll on me. I'm trying to be more like this, but still have my bad days.