Do you wake up every morning cursing your life? Then this one’s for you! Let’s walk together through this. Ever looked at a perfect diet chart that works for you? It consists of the things you like and the things you don’t like and sometimes doesn’t include the things you want the most. But is it good for you? Absolutely! After all, it’s the chart that provides the nutrition in the perfect balance for you. Now, is your chart and your friend’s one the same? No! Our bodies are different and hence we have needs in different quantities. The same goes for life. What is it that makes you curse? Studies? Work? Finances? Affairs? How about everything? These are the things you do not like but cannot exempt from your life because you need them. Just like the food you don’t like in your diet chart but still need.
What is it that you couldn’t get? A fancy car? That big house? A luxurious watch? A vacation of your desire?
Just like the foods you want but didn’t get in your diet? What are you complaining about? Your friends having them and you don’t? Remember we just said, everyone’s diet is not the same. Your diet will change with time and will include some of the things you want eventually, as long as they are good for you. And so will your life. You just have to be patient, keep trying to make things better and your time will come. Just remember, your friend’s diet will change over time too. Time, my friend, is the key.
Now, what about the things in your diet that you actually like? Those foods are accessible to you and you should grab them while you can. But do you? Do you enjoy the part of your diet that actually goes with your taste? Or you spend all the time complaining about the ones you don’t like and you didn’t get? The later is most of us and that is what we do with our lives. We are so involved in complaining about what we don’t like and what we don’t have that we forget to enjoy and appreciate what we have and what we like. You and I have the privilege to not worry about where our next meal is coming from while somebody else doesn’t. We have the money to buy at least a birthday cake for our birthday or a dress of our desire while somebody else didn’t have a proper meal in years or is wearing the same torn clothes for months because that’s all they have. Don’t complain why you have the car you have and not a Ferrari. Be grateful because someone somewhere is praying for a bicycle.
You need to understand how much you are enjoying without even realizing. You might be counting the pairs of shoes your closet holds while someone somewhere is counting how many pairs they polished or sew in the whole month to earn a living. When our five-year-old sibling is playing with that $1,000 toy car we bought him, a five-year-old somewhere is washing plates at a restaurant or risking his life at the mine sites just to earn few pennies for the family. Appreciate what you have, for someone else is praying for what you take for granted.
Let’s talk diet again! What is a diet? It’s an inclusion of all the nutrition in the perfect balance, a balance that is specific to your body. Such is life. Most of us feel miserable because we fail to find that balance, that balance of everything, of the things we like and the things we do not like and the things we want but don’t have.
How much do you try every day to give yourself pleasure? To feel better? Watch a movie? Buy that drink? Order that dish from that restaurant? Well, that’s great but that’s material.
How much do you do in spiritual terms? Do you see where the imbalance is? Do you see why you are never content, never totally happy or pleased or satisfied?
But the good news is, it’s never too late. Fixing that balance is no rocket science. How often do you stop to ask yourself how much you have done in a day? And how much of that were good deeds? Let’s say the count is zero. Then start with one. Ask yourself to do one good deed every day, make a diary, write it down every time you do one. It can be anything. Maybe you threw some grains at the yard for the birds to feast on, maybe you helped a friend with a homework, maybe you called an aunt who lives alone and has no one to ask her if she was doing okay, maybe you listened to someone who had so much to tell but no one to talk to. Anything! Just start somewhere. You might feel you have nothing to gain here but you actually do!
Read from your diary once every month and you will realize the difference you have made. The pleasure of making someone feel better or happy is priceless. This gives you a feeling of peace and contentment. That my friend, helps your balance. Go from one good deed a day to at least one good deed a day. From a line of good deed per day to a page of good deeds per day, till it diminishes the imbalance you had for so long that made you wake up cursing this beautiful life you are blessed with. Love yourself, love your life, love the people around, spread happiness, be grateful, forget and forgive. Life is beautiful.