It
is what it is
by
Marcus Loane
26th
September 2010
This article is a follow up to my article on explaining your life the optimistic or pessimistic way.
In that article I explained how our reactions to events creates our experience
of reality and affects our mood and well-being. You may have noticed that it
involved labelling some events in our lives as bad or good. However another useful
flip in perspective is to try and stop labelling things as either bad or good.
You can see things as "just the way it is", without making many
judgements about it. You can come to accept everything in life instead of
constantly railing against it or wishing it were
different in some way. You no longer see things as a trial, tedious,
irritating, maddening, dreadful, terrible, disastrous, or to be added to your
list of problems. You see things as interesting, curious, a challenge, a
learning process and just a part of life. You can learn to change the
adjectives in your thinking (and speech) and make them less extreme and more
neutral.
"It
is what it is" seems to say very little yet it sums up a whole philosophy,
that of grateful, peaceful acceptance of being alive in this moment whatever
that entails.
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