An ordinary life

“Awesome”, “Life is SO amazing!!”, “Gratitude to the Universe!” Have we lost our minds? Or are we just trying to convince everybody, mostly ourselves, that “Life is wonderful!”?

First of all, let’s look at what awesome actually means and what springs to mind; such things as The Tag Mahal, a breath taking sunset, falling in love, a piece of music that pulls at the heart strings, a baby being born, the Grand Canyon. Something that takes our breath away, sets a tingle down our spine, brings tears to our eyes and a feeling that is strong in our heart. I think it is a rare thing, or at least it used to be. Not any more it seems. Everything seems to be awesome these days.

I may be starting to sound cynical now but I am not. I believe in the power of positive thinking, I really do. I believe that it is beneficial to focus on good things in life. I believe in feeling good and I believe in feeling bad, and I strongly believe in just feeling ok. What ever happened to that I wonder? Just feeling ok. I believe it is important to be honest and true to yourself, to feel however you feel, and however that is, is just how it is.

Social media has such a lot to answer for. We now have a platform to create and display this person that we can imagine we are. This person with an incredible life, with a loving family, wonderful job and amazing friends. We go to great parties and we are so popular and happy, and just look at how fabulous our face is and how perfect our body is. Pretty hard to live up to that isn't it? Then on the flip side, oh gosh, how unbelievably stressed we can be! How shattered our lives can become. We are so full of anxiety and depression, or maybe we are the sensitive introvert that nobody understands. We really are in the depths of despair and we wish to tell the whole world.

We are told that we can accomplish anything that we want, we are a warrior, a champion, a fighter! Achieve, set goals, aim high, you are a winner! What if you don’t really mind if you win? What if you can’t be arsed? What if you are just happy to stay in the middle lane, dare I say it, “Aim for average”. “Bloody hell no!” you say. “What a terrible attitude to have!” Why are we so scared to just be ordinary I wonder, ordinary comes with far less stress.

Why not give this a go if you feel that this is all making sense to you? Hold the breaks a little bit when you are pushing hard in work, sport, or indeed anything that you strive in. Stop trying to be someone you are not, you get no brownie points for happiness or awesomeness. Accept that it is fine to be fine. When you feel sad or low, accept that, sit with it, don’t try to change it. Allow yourself to be low, there is nothing wrong with it. That is really what it is all about, allowing yourself to just be as you are, without the need for anything else, no need to prove or pretend.

Hopefully what you will find is relief, comfort and a sense of ease. Life will start to flow more, knowing that you are no longer setting yourself up potentially to fail, creating anxiety and strife, you are setting yourself up to just see what happens. Doesn't that sound easier?