One of my favorite books on keeping things in perspective is “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff…and it’s all small stuff” by Richard Carlson PH.D. The book itself is actually quite small in size and less than three hundred pages. However, the content of this small book is quite large and very powerful. If we are to really look at the big picture of life, we would realize that quite often we make a really big deal out of little situations. When we sit down to honestly examine this, we find that for the most part, it is all small stuff. How many times have we accidentally burned the toast and spilled our coffee only to decide that the rest of our day was doomed? Or perhaps we have a little disagreement with a friend or co-worker and feel as though that the world is against us, and that no one understands our point of view. When it boils down to it, the majority of situations that cause us stress are very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The unfortunate condition that most of us create for ourselves is the need to prove how intelligent, smart, beautiful, strong or powerful we are. It is almost as though we are constantly in front of a panel of judges. In reality, that panel of judges is really just one judge, you. One of my favorite quotes from Carlson is…”humility and inner peace go hand in hand. The less compelled you are to prove yourself, the easier it is to feel peace inside”. We need to be more kind and patient with ourselves. We are human and we will make mistakes from time to time. If we succeeded at everything and never made any mistakes the world would be a pretty boring place! As we move forward through our day let’s try to relax and navigate our ship with inner peace as the captain. From time to time there will be not so small things that we will need all of our energy to deal with. If we waste our energy on the small stuff, the bigger things will feel too large to handle. Remember, no one is judging you but yourself, so shorten your ruler, and don’t sweat the small stuff, because it’s all small stuff! Treat yourself and others with loving kindness!
Wuf Namaste!