It is far too easy to let the stresses of the day get the best of you. Every day is unique and you can be sure that each one is going to challenge you in a unique way. Before starting up your day, take a moment to think about this and accept it.
How you do that is up to you to decide since no two of us are alike and there is no one size fits all approach…You may want to simply lay in bed for a few minutes before you get up and think about the day to come. You may want to get a bit of exercise in. You may want to grab a few minutes of silence (before the kids are up obviously) and try your hand at some meditation…
There’s no way to stop the challenges from coming but with acceptance and the right frame of mind, you may be able to see the positive aspects of the things in your life and use them to focus on the present and find happiness.
All too often we look to a future state as the only way we’ll be able to achieve peace and happiness. We tell ourselves things like [choose your own adventure]:
- I can’t wait until my child can finally:
- crawl;
- walk;
- talk;
- brush your teeth;
- feed yourself;
- dress yourself;
- go to the bathroom yourself (ok, this one you probably won’t look back on and miss that much);
- go to school
- I’ll feel better when this project is done
- Life will be so much better when I have a new job or I’m making more money
- I just need a vacation and everything will be ok
What we really need to make us happy, however, is what we have right here, right now. You don’t need all those things you think you need. You don’t need to get past this challenging situation you’re working through.
This is all part of life.
You just need to train yourself to see that you already have everything you need and work on enjoying all that you have in the present moment. Sleepless nights, messy houses, arguing over silly things, cleaning up dirty diapers…as tough and stressful as all of these are, they are things you can, and should, find happiness in. They are things that you are likely to look back on and cherish.
I’m a music lover and always try and take something from the music I listen to. One fantastic song that I’ve found helps to reinforce this lesson is “These Days” by Rudimental…
“I hope some day we’ll sit down together,
And laugh with each other about these days, these days.
All our troubles, we’ll lay to rest then,
And we’ll wish we could come back to these days, these days.”
– Rudimental
I like this song so much that I’ll give you two flavors to check out:
- Here’s a live version that has more of a soulful, “take you to church” kind of vibe…
- Here’s more of a hip-hop version…I’ve always been a hip-hop head and with DJ Premier being one of my favorite all time producers, I had to throw this one our there as well…
Live for today and focus on the present knowing full well that you will look back wanting to come back to…these days, these days