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Health and Wellness

Rolling with the Punches

The only thing that matters when something happens is how you react to it.

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Rolling with the Punches
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Things are always changing, whether you want them to or not.

I am the worst person I know when it comes to dealing with change, but the more time goes on the more I realize that no matter how much I plead and beg the world isn't going to stop continuing in its natural order just to appease me, or anyone else for that matter. If that was the case there would be no cancer because the second someone complained about it, it would be gone. There would be no poverty, no market crashes, no war...none of that would exist. Everything would go with the flow seemingly, but also almost robotic. It would be like clockwork of what to expect every morning when you opened your eyes.

For a good portion of the time I was okay with that because being uncomfortable sucks, but how much more uncomfortable is it when you find yourself missing out because you're afraid of what's going to happen? As time has gone on I've realized that while I hadn't thought about it the only thing that was consistent in my life was the fact that nothing was consistent. Friends come and go, as well as hobbies, TV shows that I like will eventually be outdone by something I find way more interesting down the line, things to do for fun change based on my mood and what's open, and so on.

The more I thought about it I realized that while change and facing new things may make me uncomfortable that the only thing I can do is greet this new thing with a smile and hope for the best out of it, but if the best isn't what comes out of it then at least I tried. The world will never 100% work out in my favor and I can't spend the majority of my life disappointed with something I don't have control over. Things happen the way they do for reasons unbeknownst to me, and for right now I don't want to know why they happen. Knowing that could alter everything I know and then I find myself in the same comfort zone I wound up getting uncomfortable in.

This perspective is a new one, one that still has a few kinks to be worked out, but it comes from a band that I really admire because they wrote a song with the lyrics "roll with the punches and smile with the sad". At first, it kind of turned me off to think that I was just supposed to let things happen and be sad about them rather than avoiding being sad in general, but the more the song played it kind of got embedded in my head that they were right. Things just needed to happen as they did, and the only thing that mattered was how I controlled my response to them. It wasn't about something disappointing happening and me being upset about it waiting for the disappointment to subside; it was about looking at the situation as a learning experience for the future. Change is scary, uncertainty is scary, but it will always be just as it has always been.

Sometimes you just need to roll with what the world throws your way and see what comes out of it if you greet it with understanding rather than fear.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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