Perception is Reality

Have you ever wondered why life seems to get more and more complicated? Why when you have a million things to worry about, something else pops up? Maybe one week you're faced with a full work load, and your child gets the flu. The week before you had to deal with your mother's open heart surgery, and it feels like life won't let you breathe. As you drive your child to the doctor, your check engine light comes on. On the way home, your poor child vomits all over the back seat, and when you get home you discover the dog got out of its gate. You get your child set up comfortably on the couch, and go outside to look for the dog. After fifteen minutes you give up, and figure it will come back eventually. But to your dismay, you're locked out of the house. Your child's fallen asleep on the couch, and doesn't answer your frantic knocks. Could this day get any worse?

Of course it could. And you know that. But haven't we all had days such as these? Sometimes quite often. When you stop to think about it, nothing truly terrible happened. Your child will get better, your spouse will come home and open the door, and the dog always returns within a few days. The check engine light can be diagnosed and fixed, the seats of your car can be cleaned. But sometimes life's little problems really get to you, and can stress you out much more than is needed.

But why do these little problems get to us so much? How come losing your keys in the morning can cause you to swear and feel extreme frustration that doesn't really fit the situation?

There's two answers to this question that I'm going to focus on, explaining each separately in the chapters to come. However both answers revolve around one concept: Perception.

Perception is reality. When you view everything that happens to you as bad, and every minor annoyance as frustrating, life can be extraordinarily difficult. Every day these little things pile on, and occasionally major problems pop up as well. Sometimes it feels like you aren't meant to relax, or even enjoy your life. Learning to manage your mind and view everything that happens properly will help you make major steps towards becoming a happier person.