How to Not Let Life’s Little Bumps Make You Unhappy

I’ve never been one to give up easily. If the odds are stacked against me, I simply double my efforts and persevere with gritty determination. When the going gets tough, the tough get busy, right?

For years I thought that my tenacious tendency was a positive personality trait, but time has changed my perspective and what once seemed an appealing quality has revealed itself to be nothing more than fear of the unknown.

Learning to welcome change with open arms is called acceptance and a skill worth learning early. When we stop deeming big and small disruptions as undesirable, life becomes so much easier. Resisting change, especially those out of our control, is not only futile, it is exhausting.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

The Hard Way

The yoga class I favored was removed from my studio’s schedule, and although there were numerous other classes to choose from, the cancellation upset my perfect little world. I was content and did not want to change the style of yoga I had become accustomed to. So I went in search of a surrogate.

After fruitlessly floundering around a couple of weeks, I dragged my reluctant butt back to my original studio and attended a Vinyasa class, convinced it would not satisfy my needs.

Of course, I was wrong. The flowing sequences were not only a welcome change of pace from the precision alignment of my former Iyengar practice, but also challenging. The change forced me to grow and took me deeper into my practice.

The Easy Way

The following anecdote was originally published in the New York Times and is worth passing on. It is a beautiful example of acceptance and something to aspire to.

“A woman steps out of a subway car and starts to put her gloves back on when she realizes that one is missing. She turns to look at the subway car and sees one lonely glove on the seat. It is too late to retrieve the glove, so with a shrug of her shoulders she throws the glove she is holding into the train as the doors close. She smiles and walks away.”

If this had happened to me, I most likely would have clenched my lone glove and stared mournfully at the train until it was out of sight. Once home I would have bemoaned my misfortune to anyone who would listen and quite possibly left the glove on the kitchen counter for a week before I gave it up!

Wasn’t her way so much easier?

How well do you handle life’s little blips? Just think, maybe this woman met the man of her dreams on the way to get a new pair of gloves. You never know what change and a little acceptance can bring! —Karen