It is without question that life would be impossible if everything was sunshine and rainbows.
Think about the last time something bad has happened to you and think about how you reacted to the situation.
Did you sit there and dwell on the outcome of the thing that happened?
Did the one bad thing snowball into a series of bad things all happening at once?
The snowball effect is always the nice cherry on top of a shit sundae when it comes to having a bad day.
Think about when you have a bad day - something super small and inconvenient happens to you first thing in the morning and the rest of your day is full of inconveniences.
Before you know it, your entire mood and mindset is shot for the entire day, and for whatever reason it seems like everything is out to get you.
Maybe there is an accident on the road creating 30 extra minutes of traffic on the same road you drive everyday.
Maybe your boss at work yelled at you for not doing something correctly.
Or maybe that was the day you shit your pants at work and had to leave.
Regardless of what happened, I am sure you are all familiar with what I am talking about when referring to the snowball effect in this scenario.
Bad things are just a natural part of life and like we have said before, how we choose to deal with the bad is just that, a choice.
You can either sit there and feel sorry for yourself and wonder why it seems like only bad things happen to you, or you can get up and do something about it and force it to become one of your strengths.
When it comes to dealing with the bad, it all starts with acceptance.
If you are able to accept that bad things are going to happen to you in life, you can work on ways to overcome them by building strength.
For me personally, I accept that bad things are always going to happen and the only thing that I can do is prepare myself for when they do.
One of the worst feelings is having something bad happen and be surprised that it happened.
Sure, there are always going to be things that surprise you, for better and for worse.
But what I am saying is that if you are willing to do what you have to do to make yourself stronger, you can prepare yourself for when the bad surprises do show up.
It is almost like planning for the worst thing that could possibly happen to you and figuring out ways to build strength around that thing.
If you can accept that bad things are always going to happen throughout the course of your life, the less surprised you are going to be when they d0 - like I said, you're planning for it.
The problem that most people have when they are depressed or feel anxious is that they are solely thinking about how bad they feel in that moment and it feels like they are always going to feel that way.
I would argue that one way to fight against depression is by accepting that it is a feeling and it doesn't have to last forever if you do not want it to.
Of course, nobody wants to feel bad or feel depressed, but like everything in life, we always have choices that need to be made.
There is always work that needs to be done and strength that needs to be built.
I have used the analogy before when talking about a man needing to go through pain to gain strength - a man must be willing to walk through fire so that he can come out and forge himself into a sharper piece of iron, and go back into the fire to repeat the process all over again.
This is life as a man in a nutshell.
Being able to accept that we have to go back into that fire because we know the only way forward is by getting stronger.
The acceptance is the willingness to do something regardless of how you feel about it.
I accept that I feel like shit today, but what needs to be done, needs to be done.
The actions do not change, even though thoughts and feelings are constantly changing.
Most people are constantly allowing themselves to talk themselves out of doing things that are productive, so that they can continue to be miserable.
The only logical sense behind these kinds of actions is simply that is the path of least resistance.
You don't feel like doing what you need to do to have the life that you want, so you either write it off as depression, or sadness.
One thing I find interesting about depression is how incredibly easy it is to feel depressed.
Think about it, someone feeling like they are in a constant state of chaos and nothing is going their way, is easier than going out and doing 1000 pushups.
This is one thing I have learned when dealing with depression myself is supplementing the shitty feeling with productive behavior.
By being more productive and doing what needs to get done everyday, it gives me more of a satisfaction of reward having felt like shit.
Being able to accept that bad things and bad thoughts are going to happen, I can prepare myself through action to combat those negative things or feelings.
Will you ever be able to get away from bad feelings?
Of course not!
You have to feel like shit sometimes because that is part of the human experience.
I know some people that have experienced some severely traumatic things in their lives and you would never know because they are some of the most humble people you will ever meet.
On the other hand, I have met others who have had severely traumatic things happen to them and they spend everyday of their lives living in fear, and anxiety.
The difference between those that are humbled by their pain and those who fall victim to it is that people who are humbled have the ability to accept their pain and use it as fuel for strength instead of weakness, while the opposite is true for those who fall victim.
This is obviously a controversial subject because there are many people who seek professional help for the way they feel.
Being that this is a controversial topic, it is important to have empathy for people and try to understand that not everyone is going to see the world exactly the same.
But when you think about how humans are programmed and the things we have had to experience since the beginning of time to get to where we have today, you begin to realize that it doesn't matter where you are from in any period of human history, bad things have always happened and are always going to happen.
Jesus was the true son of God and was sentenced to death for sticking up for us!
You don't even have to be Christian to understand that bad things have to happen and the only way to prepare ourselves for them is by first accepting them, followed by immediate action towards more productive behavior.
We all have the power to change our lives and I believe it is much more than just thinking something positive in your mind, and is more of a reflection of your choice of actions.
The only way that we grow is through pain and if you can accept that, you can start developing a course of action to fight against it to build the strength you need to live a more fulfilling life.