Inspiration – if You Look, You’ll Find It. Perspective on Life
Your perspective can change how you view the world
The end of 2020 is at our doorstep, and as the year draws closer, it’s time for reflection. I’m reminded of the expression “New Year, New You.”
As I sat and reflected on my year and how I will do things differently, I noticed a theme in my recent conversations. Two conversations that stand out the most to me are those I had with my parents. The first was with my father after a doctor’s visit had left me a little anxious and full of mixed emotions. We sat down and discussed how important it is, no matter what happens, to keep an upbeat mental attitude. He tried to complement this nugget of advice by stating that I didn’t have it as bad if I compared myself to less fortunate people. I know he meant well and wanted me to feel better about my situation. Like most parents, he just wanted to help me. His heart is in the right place.
This type of comparison is commonplace. However, comparing our problems to someone who has it worse doesn’t make us feel better. It leaves us feeling like our experiences and emotions are invalid. I began to feel guilty for having anxiety; I knew this was not what my father had intended.
We are allowed to go through our lows in life and feel bad, and there’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s ok to honor those feelings and, in doing so, release them.
The second conversation is one I had with my mother. My mother has a unique collection of proverbs, which she uses quite a bit to teach me and others. Many of them made absolutely no sense to me as a young kid, but as I grew older, they began to become clear subtly. Recently, she told me of a cute drawing she saw of 2020 drawn in a spooky manner and a person running from it and towards a picture of 2021 with open arms as if ready to embrace us. Now I must preface this part by saying my parents raised my brother and me to be extremely open-minded and caring. Due to this, my brother and I have delved into various cultures and arts. This gave us a sense of humor that runs the gamut of appropriate and inappropriate, light and dark, childlike and adult, and even twisted or commonplace. So, having a dash of nihilistic humor, my retort to this drawing my mother spoke of was, “Well, that doesn’t make any sense; we don’t know how 2021 will be. “Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don’t.” I giggled aloud for using one of her sayings.
Now I know you might be thinking, “Well Rimi, these are interesting stories but how do they relate to each other?” The main thing that links these two stories is my outlook on life. That outlook is a simple reflection of who I am as a person. I’m an upbeat person, but it’s not something I can keep up 100 percent of the time. I am grateful for it because it has helped me through some of the lows in my life. Some of us tend to have pessimistic outlooks on life and are stuck in that cycle of only seeing the negative. I, for one, used to be one of those people. Our perspective on life is like a compass. If we constantly see the negative in everything, the more we guide ourselves into a negative space. If we keep a positive outlook on life, It doesn’t matter how bad the storm gets; every cloud has a silver lining. So, with the new year in front of us, let’s not start a new year with a new us. Instead, let’s start the new year with the same us but with a renewed sense of optimism. Try something new you never thought you would like by looking at it from a different perspective. As always, be sure to tell someone you love them, and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year. I love you all so very much!
With Love,
Rimi Duque