#HAWMC - Flickr inspired post - Perspective

For today's #HAWMC challenge, I am to take the first picture I see on flickr.com/explore, and use that to inspire a health-related blog post. Below is the Cuban Tree Frog, at first glance, a cute bugger(pun intended), but according to Wikipedia, and invasive species that in some places is being called for extermination on sight. Yie... Not so cute anymore. It's all about perspective... for bad or for good. It's that way with my health, too.

How you doin'?

When I get angry or frustrated with something that I can't change, I'll close my eyes (usually with clinched fists too) and I'll ask myself, "Okay... what is the good in this? Where is the good in this? Find it." And I force myself to see some way in which I could turn around my thinking---see how this terrible situation could be good. It's not an easy exercise. Sometimes it will take me days to come up with an answer. Sometimes longer than that. "What else have I got? What's left?" are questions that can sometimes help me think. "How could this bee a good thing?" is straight and to the point. I try and look at whatever it is, what ever awful thing that's going on in my life that I can't control, and I try to see it as a gain instead of a loss.

The second I'm able to figure that out, my heart hurts less. The world doesn't seem so dark. I can usually spot some opportunity I couldn't see before. Pretty soon, my shoulders relax. And the more I think about my new perspective, the more I'm able to laugh. Mostly, I laugh at myself (there's always something!), but sometimes something funny just happens, and I'm able to laugh. That may not sound like a big deal to a lot of people, but for a lot of us, it sadly is a big deal. Being able to laugh from actual joy, and not just, "I am going to laugh to show that I understand this is funny/clever," is pretty amazing. Being able to find that place after being frustrated and screaming at the heavens is HUGE. Laughter heals the pain in our souls.

Once I can laugh again (and maybe take a nap, because screaming at the heavens is tiring), I have the strength to go back to fight the good fight. The world isn't such an awful place when I can find joy in it. When I'm able to stop looking at the glass as half-full or half-empty, and say instead, "Thanks! Just what I needed---I was feeling a little thirsty..." then it doesn't matter either way. I'm going to take advantage of the situation, that glass will be empty in about 30 seconds, and my thirst will be quenched. Or in other words, who cares about measuring this much, or that little? Does it serve a purpose? Find the purpose, and make it useful to you.

I take my pain, mistakes, and shortcomings---all the adventures of my life---and I try to help other people. If I can make just one person's day better with my words, my job is done. (That's always why I'm so absolutely thrilled when a post takes off. After the first person, the rest are all bonus points! Although it's always flattering to know someone likes what I have to say, my main focus is lessening the pain of someone else. If I can help someone else suffer less... if they don't have to suffer like I suffered, then I've helped... then my pain wasn't just for the sake of pain. It's could be turned into something useful for someone else.

It's all a matter of perspective.