The world is a nasty and hateful place. Bad things happen everyday to countless people. It is impossible to live a life without having bad experiences. There will always be things that make you feel sad, mad, and hurt. No matter who you are, you cannot avoid all of these things. It’s humanely impossible.
So how do you deal with these heavy feelings that make you feel sad, mad, and hurt without becoming a nasty hateful person? If the world is a nasty hateful place, how do you deal with all the feelings that weigh you down and make you want to be nasty and hateful yourself? It seems almost impossible, right?
But the solution is perspective and framing your life. When you put a painting in a rose colored frame, the rose colors stand out. When you put a painting in a black frame, the darkness stands out. How do you frame your life? Because the frame determines what stands out. Is your cup half full or is it half empty? Because both glasses have the same amount of liquid in them. What do you want to focus on? What will make you feel better?
Do you want to live your life for love? Or do you want to live your life for hate? Wearing rose colored glasses isnt really about the view. It is about the kind of person you become. If you focus on love, you will love yourself. If you focus on hate, you will hate yourself. Which person do you want to be?
When people give you a hard time about wearing rose colored glasses or being too optimistic, really all they are doing is trying to get you to hate yourself like they hate themselves. The world is a really dark and nasty place. Do you think hating yourself is going to make things any better or easier?
When bad things happen and you start to get nasty and hateful like the world, it feels like that nastiness is happening to you. It doesn’t feel like you are choosing to focus and become nasty yourself. It feels like the nasty is happening to you. And in these moments is when you decide what kind of person you are going to be. Are you going to live for love? Or are you going to live for hate?
When you start saying and doing things to hurt people, you are living for hate. But when you love the things and people you have in your life, you are living for love. Living for love is about gratitude. Your brain is a magical computer. And there is this program in your brain that stops fear and anxiety when you are being grateful. It is literally impossible for your brain to run the program for fear and anxiety at the same time as it is running the program for gratitude. And anxiety is really just the fear of bad things happening in the future. Fear and anxiety are pretty much the same thing.
So when you feel yourself starting to live for hate and when you feel yourself starting to run the anxiety and fear program in your brain all you have to do is start being grateful. This literally rewires your brain and creates new pathways and connections that allow you to live for love. This is how you start loving yourself. Because when you live for love, you love yourself.
And loving yourself isn’t about thinking you are perfect. It’s not about ignoring your flaws or mistakes. It’s about being a realist and knowing you have to appreciate and feel good about yourself in order to have a good life. Your imperfections are still going to exist. You will still be human and make mistakes. But you will give yourself more of a break and you will see the good qualities you have. You have to live for love to love yourself. And you have to love yourself to have a good life.
Having a good life isn’t about escaping all the nasty and hateful things in the world. Having a good life is about the frame you look at things through. Perspective is everything, right? If you live for hate, you will hate yourself. If you live for love, you will love yourself. Which person do you think has a better life? Because they both experience nasty and hateful things.