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And a piece of advice for reframing your relationship to pain.
Life really is all about the way you react to the things that happen to you. I’ve been hearing that and seeing quotes about it for years, but the concept always frustrated me. “So I’m just supposed to lie down and take it?” I’d ask the universe. I’m expected to have a positive attitude about everything, even if I hate that it’s happening?
Not exactly. What I’ve come to realize is that those quotes about controlling your reaction to bad things happening to you aren’t advising that you do nothing and just accept the hard times with a smile on your face. They’re simply acknowledging the fact that some things can’t be changed or helped. For the things that CAN be changed, well, it’s our job to change them if we’re unhappy with them.
Things we can’t change or fix
Unfortunately, there are sometimes hardships in life that we have no control over. In those circumstances, no matter what we do, the bad thing that’s happening to us is a tragic, yet undeniable fact of life. Those are the situations in which only your reaction can make things better.
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you, and 90 percent how you react to it.” — Charles R. Swindoll
