Speed & Adrenaline Versus Comfort & Peace

Allow me to share this Quora.com post by Tiwari:  A French Dassault Rafale jet slows down, flies alongside the Airbus and calls the airline pilot over the radio:  "Hey bus driver!  Boring flight, isn't it?  Fasten your seatbelt and take a look at this:  He does a barrel roll, accelerates, breaks the sound barrier, climbs vertically up to a dizzying height, then dives down to sea level in a breathtaking spin.  Returning to the Airbus, the Rafale fighter jet pilot asked, 'Well, how was that?'  The Airbus pilot says, 'That was very impressive BUT look over here. The Rafale fighter jet pilot looks at the Airbus BUT nothing happens.  It keeps flying calmly in a straight line at a constant speed and after five minutes, the Airbus pilot calls back on the radio and asked 'WHAT do you think?'  The puzzled fighter jet asked, 'WHAT did you do?'  I got up, stretched my legs, walked to the back of the plane and used the restroom, had a cup of tea and had a cinnamon roll'📗📙📘

Moral of the story?  WHEN we are young, speed and adrenaline seem to be the best things in life.  BUT as we grow older and wiser, we learn to value comfort and peace much more than anything. BUT please DON'T misconstrue me.  I DON'T mean we should push ourselves to be in that laidback and passive state, NO sirrrrrrs.  Instead, it is more about intentionally slowing down through our mindfulness, setting our priorities and boundaries [LIKE having the courage to say 'NO'] and even disconnecting from digital overload, focusing on single tasks [and NOT multitasking]❎❎❎

This is NOT to mean that we should embrace more the Airbus pilot as compared to that Rafale fighter jet pilot.  BUT instead, let's always go back to our priorities.  If today we are indeed in a Rafale jet fighter pilot, then by all means, that frenetic pace of that pilot is the one we can aptly embrace now.  BUT in life, let's embrace that 'balancing act' and align it with our priorities either for the day OR for the long-term.  Even if assuming your pace of likfe now is comparable to that Rafale jet fighter pilot, it DOESN'T mean that that should be your constant pace, day-in day-out.  And that's WHERE your 'balancing act' gets into play💧💧💧

Of course, we can all admit that till to date, that is something we're still figuring out as this is the very key to productivity, confidence and success in everything we do.  YES, it's our own pace.  IF at all we were born to be a slow learner, life itself will push us to become faster.  And IF we were born a hesitant neurotic, life pushes us to slow down.  YES dude, eventually, life balances things out.  BUT knowing your own pace of work, knowing HOW you like to operate and NOT letting other people's way of life interfere with yours, is the very key❗❗❗

Our takeaway:  I've heard this many times, that society wants you and me to be a certain way and that the best worker is the one WHO's always anxious about WHAT others will think of them.  In the end, we tend to keep pushing ourselves to the limit because we want to make a good impression OR at the very least, to keep in pace in that damn rat race.  So, WHETHER you will go for the SPEED and ADRENALINE versus the COMFORT and PEACE, it's your call dude😀😀😀

A Man Is What He Thinks All Day Long - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was known for so many things insightful and picking his brain, allow me to quote WHEN he said:  A MAN IS WHAT HE THINKS ALL DAY LONG.  BUT to be fair, this train of thought does NOT come from Ralph Waldo Emerson alone.  I'd like to draw a parallelism with Buddhist teachings WHICH, to quote, says:  YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE, showing and proving just HOW powerful thoughts can actually be as it can indeed influence and dictate the outcomes💚💛💜

Once I came across that mind-body connection, highlighting that indeed there is that CAUSE and EFFECT with both.  Frankly, I can attest to this.  IF you are thinking positive thoughts in your mind,  that will get reflected on the body with an upright posture, a smile on your face, and a general all-round positive demeanour.  And YES, that works conversely as well [and I can attest to that as well]💧💧💧

Try slouching and add frowning to it, WHAT happens next is a giveaway because it will reflect in your overall low mood and add your poor posture to that.  WHAT happens next?  Sad and often depressing thoughts will overwhelm you inside out.  Multiple researches, though, have NOT totally accepted that mind and body connection due to conflicting and inconsistent research findings.  BUT I WON'T wait for a consensus across experts.  Instead, I'll lean on my actual life experiences LIKE those times I was feeling low one day and before I know it, I was feeling depressed NOT until I took a conscious effort to extricate myself from that morass.  That makes me concur when Ralp Waldo Emerson says that A MAN IS WHAT HE THINKGS ALL DAY LONG💥💥💥

Just to share my own 2-cents here.  The other way in WHICH I tried to improve my mood [even with the least efforts exerted] was through making myself look and feel good and that could mean to as simple as being cleanly shaven and my hair groomed [IF NOT styled].  Of course, dressing up smartly are the toppings of your dish OR dessert.  Over time though, before finding these simple techniques to change HOW I thought, I would often be thinking of myself as either pitifully useless OR inadequate enough.  And NO matter WHAT I did OR said to reinforce these beliefs and those comments that I received from others, I would make them fit into my own way of thinking about myself.  Admittedly, there were numerous times WHEN I felt I was utterly useless and in the process of that thinking, I felt I had made myself useless during those times❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  One instance that triggered my realization was this poetic one-liner:  YOU CAN THINK YOU'RE A PORCUPINE ALL DAY BUT YOU WILL NEVER BECOME A PORCUPINE.  The idea behind this statement is that you can think of many and even all things BUT that DOESN'T mean that they are true.  As the sentence goes, just because you think you're a porcupine DOESN'T mean you are one.  Thinking that I was kind of useless DIDN'T necessarily mean that I was that useless.  At the end of the day, I'll always claw back and cling to that old cliche that says LIFE IS WHAT YOU ARE [and that includes your thoughts.  Yes I agree with Ralph Waldon Emerson that A MAN IS WHAT HE THINKS ALL DAY LONG😀😀😀

Reality Is NOT Out There!

 

HOW many times have we heard someone blurt, LIKE 'GO OUT AND GET OUT BECAUSE REALITY IS OUT THERE!!! Seriously??? I just DON'T buy that though.  So WHAT's the fuss about this?  ISN'T it enough that things are as they are?  The plain and simple answer is a flat NO because we are sometimes deceived.  We need to tell the difference between hard ground amd marsh land that only looks hard📗📙📘

Often, we need to know WHETHER something is a bear OR only a child with a bearskin rug over its head, right?  YES, we seem to have evolved tl tell the real from the false.   Injure the brain and the victim may lose their sense of reality.  Oh YES, when we catch flu, the familiar world can indeed seem unreal.  And you might even ask, WHAT is the nature of 'upright'?  Truth is, the real is the genuine, the reliable, WHAT we can claim we can rely on and lean on💚💛💜

This is all akin to the truthful, valuable and even deligthful.  BUT it's opposite is NOT illusion BUT the fake, the counterfeit that WHICH CAN'T be trusted, has [frankly] NO cash value.  True, stuff like the theater, paintings, television and even social media and literature, most of them deal in illusion BUT can be real in the sense that they nurture and enlarge us, helping us to make sense of experience💥💥💥

In our day-to-day life, once we turn all our sensory functions to full throttle, it is ironic that instead of us embracing the true, real and genuine REALITY, sometimes WHAT we embrace as the REALITY is the unreal, the untrue, the fiction side of things.  WHY?  Blame it on our perceptions and biases.  As the old cliche goes, many times, we see WHAT we want to see, we find the version of REALITY we believe is the REALITY😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  From my limited viewfinder, I have witnessed first-hand numerous disconnects and gaps even in the most petty and minor discourse.  And the common culprit?  That disparity in the very REALITY of things, WHEN at times, we would end up with two OR even more versions of REALITY.  To complicate a supposedly simple scenario, some of us humans tend to be 'ALL-KNOWING'.  In fact, NOT once in my life did I hear someone admit like "I'M SORRY I DON'T HAVE THE HEADS AND TAILS OF IT'.   More often, they seem to have it???

Of Pilots And Donuts

 

Of PILOTS and DONUTS.  WHAT's in there we can dig in for a quick discourse?  YES, it's a no-brainer to draw the parallelism between pilots and life itself.  Just to get a pilot license, one has to go through the long and circuituous process.  Starting from acquiring the private pilot license until one becomes a commercial pilot, the required flying hours starts at 150 hours until one acquires about 1,500+ flying hours to become a commercial pilot.  Let's think about life.  NOT far different from a pilot's path💚💛💜

Much as I am NOT into those pilot stuff, let's agree that the life of a pilot is a journey like NO other journey.  And once an aspiring student starts to aim to become a certified flight instructor, the road becomes ten times much complicated and even more difficult after the checkride.  YES, I heard narratives that there is so much pressure to keep going💥💥💥

Take several notches higher as one aims to become a commercial pilot, the complexity just skyrockets ten-fold.  And that is no far different from the way we approach our life.  At our early age, life seemed so plain and simple.  All you need to bother are your meals, your school uniform and there you go to school.  Fast-forward WHEN one either plunges into his business forays OR gets into the workplace, our situation is no different from the pilot's ladderized approach for him to progress through his steep trajectory that needs to be hurdled.  Think about it, if we're an aspiring pilot and have completed our basic flying school and after having acquired our basic pilot license, will you just turn your back and abandon things WHEN you hit the halfway mark?  Of course, right dude❓❓❓

Oh yes, you might retort, WHAT has DONUTS got to do in our thread today?  NOW, just as pilots need fuel, pilots need food, right?  And DONUTS are one of the more popular ones because it is popular enough as an easy choice, regardless you are in-transit, in layovers OR delayed flights.  So, yes dude.  we must have the 'counterpart of DONUTS' in life because from time to time, we need DONUTS😋😋😋

Our takeaway:  Regardless WHETHER by sheer coincidence, one is really aspiring to be a pilot OR not, the truth is, in life, we can always easily draw that parallelism with PILOTS and DONUTS.  NOT to forget WHEN one becomes a successful pilot, YES dude, the rewards are simply enormous.  Such is life.  The hardest part is all plotted up every step of the way, like landmines that remain incognito to the best ammunition experts you can deploy to detect it.  BUT once you reap the rewards of the successes, things can ricochet up sometimes way beyond WHAT we can fathom.  YES dude, PILOTS and DONUTS are worth it to draw its parallelisms to our life💥💥💥

Finding The EXTRAORDINARY In The ORDINARY

 

WHO wants the EXTRAORDINARY?  Of course.  Me.  Moi.  Saya.  Wo.  Mich.  WHO DOESN'T love the EXTRAORDINARY?  BUT NOT to douse cold water on anything and everything that's EXTRAORDINARY.  EXTRAORDINARY events, things OR stuff come and happen in trickles, much fewer and far in between.  And that's WHEN things go awry❌❌❌

BUT NOT to shock us all, all studies through the centuries shared results showing that small and ordinary moments often create the most lasting and meaningful memories.  On the other hand, experts tell us that the "PEAK-END RULE" suggests that we tend to remember experiences and events by their emotional HIGHs and NOT just those grandiose events.  Many of us have travelled way outside their local communities and surely, if we do a random pick of WHAT has been memorable and worth relishing, they will pick those EXTRAORDINARY moments.  LIKE if you go to France, you'll remember the Eiffel Tower.  LIKE in Japan, it's either Mount Fuji OR taking the Shinkanzen BUT alas, HOW about those one too many ORDINARY stuff that happens maybe 98% OR 99% most of the time?  More often, in fact, all the time, a tourist going to the U.S. will recall standing at the edge of one of the most awe-inspiring natural wonders, stargazing over the canyon❎❎❎

BUT alas, adults and non-adults can be hugely different.  There was a family on a tour across Europe and every adult CAN'T stop reminiscing every major tourist destination they went.  And then the small boy in their family CAN'T end his excitement with a $1 toy he snagged from 7-Eleven.  Of course, every adult was surprised BUT indeed, that separates us adults from the non-adults.  Ironically, we should be more mature enough, with a much wider perspective BUT that's WHERE the irony lies.  And that leads us all to that so called "MYTH OF BIG MOMENTS".  True, as partners and parents and humans in general, we twist ourselves nto knots trying to create those magical and unforgettable EXTRAORDINARY experiences for the people we love💧💧💧

Common scenarios get us very much deeply involved in planning elaborate vacations, orchestrate grandiose birthday celebration and stress over making every milestone feel significant.  BUT here's the thing.  Meaning ISN'T something we manufacture BUT it's something that happens in those multitudes of small, unexpected spaces n between.  Psychologists coined this as those "PEAK-END RULEs"  WHICH suggests that people DON'T remember an experience by averaging all the moments BUT by recalling the PEAK moments and the way it ended😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  Is it still feasible for us to FIND THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY?  Of course, we can do it BUT surely, since that 'EXTRAORDINARY' mindset has been deeply embedded within us, it will take a gargantuan effort from each one of us, taking a conscious and consistent approach towards flipping this mindset.  LIKE walking the walk as early as now.  LIKE thanking you walk up in the morning for another day.  LIKE thanking the sunny weather [and NOT hurricanes and typhoons].  And if there's only 1 dish on the table, thankful enough there's dish on the table.  That's FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY dude😇😇😇

If You DON'T Sacrifice For What You Want, What You Want Becomes The Sacrifice

 

Nope, this is NOT a play for words, no pun intended here WHEN I came across this poster screaming "IF YOU DON'T SACRIFICE FOR WHAT YOU WANT, WHAT YOU WANT BECOMES THE SACRIFICE".  Regardless of your faith OR religion, there is this firm belief that it is our embedded faith that will bring us through in our life journey.  BUT sometimes, goal-setting receives no more than a lip service.  We can ask any Tom, Dick and Harry.  Most of them will tell you in your face that they will ponder and think about it.  No big deal.  Chill.  Cool.  Till months and years would have passed and hardly a finger is lifted to even set those MUST-DO goal-setting.  Frankl, the most basic questions to reinforce our goal-setting are as follows:  

• WHY are those GOALS important to you?
• WHAT needs to be acquired to achieve those GOALS?
• WHAT needs to be sacrificed to realize those GOALS?

Clearly enough, the first two questions are no-brainers.  BUT for the third one, one might feel stomped to ask, WHY is there a need to SACRIFICE to achieve those GOALS?  Funny BUT NOT so funny here because I did meet first hand quite a number of people WHO have identified their GOALS BUT WHEN I asked them WHAT needs to be sacrificed, they retorted back, 'WHY DO I NEED TO SACRIFICE?'  BUT even before answering that give-away question, let's step back and ask ourselves this basic question:  WHAT'S STANDING IN BETWEEN YOU AND WHAT'S YOU TRULY WANT IN LIFE?  3-2-1, gone.  And the NOT so easy answer is:  S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E!.  Exactly!!!

So, WHAT do we fear WHEN it comes to achieving our goals and dreams?  YES, at times we fear the price we have to pay WHICH means the amount of work, and sometimes even the amount of time required for us to reach our desired outcomes.  So, clear the air of some prevailing disconnect here, SACRIFICE ISN'T giving up something that's easy to get rid of.  It's NOT giving up something cheap for something valuable.  SACRIFICE is giving up something that hurts💥💥💥

In a way, this means that sometimes, we [and that included me in the distant past] would tend to count the cost between security and comfort and maximizing our life.  Times WHEN the temptation to settle had to be met by that sacrificial knife and drained of its life.  In other words, the question that we had to answer during those times was:  AM I WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE?  YES, there are moments where we CAN'T avoid that question❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  We can say WHAT we claim and/or want BUT ultimately, SACRIFICE is all about this:  It is giving yourself for yourself no less.  WHY?  Because there's nothing more valuable that you could sacrifice than your present life and the only thing greater than that is the life you could be living.  SACRIFICE  WHAT you are in order to become all you can be.  IF YOU DON'T SACRIFICE FOR WHAT YOU WANT, WHAT YOU WANT BECOMES THE SACRIFICE, dude😡😡😡

Dumping Out The Windows Those NEGATIVITIES

 

Are we our worst enemy?  Hmmmmm, I'll guess 'SOMETIMES' for most of us, we are our worst enemy.  LIKE getting bogged down by NEGATIVE thoughts that seem to take over your mind, no matter HOW optimistic your circumstances seem to be?  OR maybe you're constantly worrying about those endless "WHAT IF's" OR you would start feeling anxious about the possibility of something bad happening even WHEN there is no reason to feel that way!@#$%? 

BUT the mother of all dispecable situations is IF at all, NEGATIVITIES have overtaken your life and YET you're totally unaware, [wrongly] thinking that everything is normal with you.  True, all of us do have those moments WHERE we think the worst and end up jumping into to conclusions even WHEN logic might show us no evidence at all that something bad will happen.  Oh Oh Oh, that's a non-news in fact WHEN at times we CAN'T help BUT think of only the worst❎❎❎

Researches showed that one of the most chronic patterns of NEGATIVITY arises out of one's perfectionism WHERE people are seeing things only in two shades, namely, black OR white and nary any shades of grey and IF things AREN'T perfect, people tag it as a failure.  Heard of those going on a new diet and everything's going as per plan until one day, you succumb to that tempting apple pie.  Then, you berate yourself as a failure for succumbing to it😡😡😡

Another very common human tendency is that easy temptation to generalize things.  LIKE WHEN one thing happens, we would tend to [wrongly] believe that it ALWAYS happens.  Then one day, you start to expect for that thing to happen until it does NOT.  Then, those thoughts are upsetting you, and worse, it could trigger off that vicious cycle of defeatism.  Oh, let's go back to our teens age WHEN we wanted to ask someone for a date and that girl you're smitten with, says NO.  Then you'll easily conclude that you will NEVER find someone willing enough to go with you for a date.  BUT the most common enemy within us are our own mental filters WHERE, of all the things going well, we would tend to pick one NEGATIVE detail and start to focus all our attention on it.  Sounds familiar, dude???

Our takeaway:  Without reinventing the wheel, allow me to paste herein to share the proven best practices for us to weather and swing our NEGATIVE thinking:

IDENTIFY our distortions - LIKE keeping a journal, to distinguish WHICH ones you favor OR NOT

CHALLENGE your thinking - Psychologists always advise us to challenge our thoughts because, time and again, it's proven NOT all our thoughts are true

Word of caution though:  Challenging our cognitive distortions would need big tons of our PRACTICE + PATIENCE all rolled into one, dude😗😗😗

The Pen Is MIGHTIER Than Going Digital

 

In our history books, we always heard THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD.  In today's digital age, we're hearing that THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN GOING DIGITAL.  Indeed, I am guilty of this even as we speak now.  I did forget altogether about the pens and pencils.  BUT alas, psychologists tell us that we should never shove away handwriting because engaging the fine motor system to produce those letters and words by hand has its very positive effects on our learning [you might argue that you DON'T need to learn anymore?] and memory💚💛💜

True, those handwritten notes in our schools might seem like an anachronism as smartphones and other digital technologies have literally lorded it all over us, subsuming every aspect of learning across the academe.  WHAT's pitiful is that schools WHO DON'T show off OR offer those iPads and other smart devices are pushed down as inferior schools. Seriously!@#$%? 

Those steady streams of researches till to date continue to suggest and reinforce the fact that taking notes via the traditional way [with pens and paper] is STILL the best and most effective way to learn.  YES, even scientists have joined the fray by zeroing as to WHY???  A recent study I stumble across monitored brain activity across students taking handwritten notes and found out that those writing by hand had very much higher levels of electrical activity across a wider range of interconnected brain regions responsible for movement, vision sensory processing and even memory.  Their findings are adding to a growing body of evidence that has many experts speaking up about the importance for us to increase the awareness on the importance for us NOT to relegate to the backdrop our traditional way of writing things😡😡😡

NOT our fault though.  Gone are the traditional TALK & TEXT mobile phones.  Comes the whole suite of smartphones.  And WHEN that converges with the multifarious social media platforms, that's like the END GAME of the old traditional way of writing.  We might argue that for us adults, WHY should we be bothered with our motor systems?  Recent studies show that it's NOT just a dent BUT alas, if we go overboard with everything digital, that's the END GAME for our motor system❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  As much as I am equally guilty of totally embracing everything digital [and forced back to handwriting only when business or legal docs would require affixing wet signatures], the onus is on us to reinforce the awareness to go the traditional way of handwriting if at least to complement anything that's digital.  Obviously, it's NOT realistic for us to sketch and draw emojis, NO WAY Jose but it behooves that we endeavor to vociferously grab a pen and paper as much as possible.  Let's re-embrace traditional handwriting even in this digital age😗😗😗

Can We FIX Ourselves First?

 

Let's LOOK and [maybe] LURK around.  There are one too many things to FIX.  Let's NOT go farther.  Simply ask your local politician.  They have a laundry list of things to FIX in your local district.  NOT to besmirch politicians because there remains a big chunk of well-meaning ones, BUT I have to vent out my 2-cents that in quite a number of Third World countries, there is a huge overflow of local politicians WHO see in themselves as the #1 "MR FIX's" option in their locality.  BUT no dude, we won't get into these politicians but instead, let us focus on our private lives, WHERE we are, as a "MR FIX"💚💛💜

If there is a huge problem at hand, sometimes [and probably many times for others], it is just too tempting to dip our hands into the cookie jars of someone else to FIX that other person's issues or even him/herself.  BUT the much bigger problem here is that it implies that someone is indeed broken and needs to be FIXED??? BUT alas, the bigger question is this:  WHY do we succumb [sometimes faster than the speed of sound] to attempt FIXING others before we should have realized that, of all things, we've got to prioritize FIXING ourselves first?  YES, I totally agree that that urge to FIX someone else and changing someone for the better might sound like the heroic thing to do!@#$%?

NOT to douse cold water even with those best intentions, in multiple researches, results showed that this kind of approach does MORE HARM THAN GOOD.  NOW, please DON'T get us wrong here because in truth, WHILE many fall into this pattern for a variety of deeply human reasons, sometimes deeply rooted in empathy, love and even past experiences.  And it's a fact that some folks may have been raised in environments WHERE they were oriented and probably 'conditioned' to be 'rescuers' of sorts.  LIKE someone WHO grew up being a caregiver [NOT by choice] to a sick family members.  Surely along the way, he will  develop that 'rescuer' mindset😂😂😂

NOW, can we turn things around?  Instead of banking and nursing on the hope that a person will eventually become 'better' with your helping hand, ISN'T it much more worthwhile to shift the focus back to our very own self?  WHAT could be more saddening if someone tends to focus on someone's woes more to deflect from his/her own struggles, ouch!@#$%?  OR maybe we're kind of chasing that 'sweet' validation that comes with miraculously unlocking a struggling person's potentials?  True, we all run in situations WHERE someone close to us is struggling.  Maybe they're nursing a broken heart over a recent breakup?  OR they've lost their job?  OR maybe they're dealing with anxiety OR depression.  The reality is that life can get messy and that can happen to us anytime, no exceptions!!!

Our takeaway:  Nothing wrong for us to get into a "FIX IT" mode, showing up youre supportive and much as likely, you could mean well, be super-duper conscious that you DON'T take it way too far, in the end sacrificing oneself and your own level of happiness, all because you are so embroiled in your sincere attempt to fix someone else's situation.  As the old cliche goes, before you look across the whole forest, ensure you have a good appreciation of the tree right in your face, and that could be your own woes, your own struggles dude.  So, CAN WE FIX OURSELVES FIRST dude???

Those PILLARS in Life

 

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung was famous for many things besides having founded the school of analytical psychology.  BUT amongst all things, I'd like to leverage on the PILLARS IN LIFE Carl Jung has advocated from the very start:

Our HEALTH - One thing WHERE Carl Jung did set expectations is that good HEALTH is intended NOT to raise happiness BUT rather to lower unhappiness.  Of course, it's a bonus if one becomes happier.  Bottomline is,  it is way beyond debate that the state of our HEALTH tops things all.  You can be blessed with everything in life BUT if your HEALTH is in dire straits, you have a more serious concern to tackle, probably diluting any other happiness in life😡😡😡

Our RELATIONSHIPs - The intertwined notions that close relationships are at the heart of our well-being and experts opine that cultivating them will [likely] reliably increase our HAPPINESS.  Oh, the experts infused the value of successful marriages because it has taken a serious beating the past decades, their research evidences are piling up that being wed makes the majority of people much HAPPIER than they otherwise would be💥💥💥

Our REASONABLE standard of living - Parallel to the paramount importance of our health, income and employment seem tied more towards eliminating unhappiness than raising happiness.  In fact, experts opine that unemployment is the most common source of misery.  WHAT happens next, depressive symptoms typically rise WHEN one gets unemployed.  True, this just CAN'T be explained simply by the lack of material and social resources that typically accompanies joblessness.  BUT can we take a step farther if we can endeavor to upgrade 'satisfactory work' to 'meaningful work', hoping that positive gains in happiness can come into play💚💛💜

Our OUTLOOK - Carl Jung strongly espoused that a good life requires a way of understanding WHY things happen the way they do, being able to zoom our from the tedious travails of our daily life and then putting events in life into perspective.  Thing is, we are counselled NOT to fall prey to seeking just pure happiness BUT instead seek lifelong progress toward that state of 'happierness'.  NOT to be verbose, we often hear this lesson:  THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  To simplify an often complicated life, the very basic PILLARS in LIFE can all be counted within the fingers of just one of our hands.  And akin to those concrete foundations of built structures, we need to put in place these PILLARS in LIFE in a fashion that they will become the key factors for us to reinforce our resilience in life, WHEN storms hit us, WHEN floods tend to drown us.  Verily true, let us invest time and efforts to put up our PILLARS in LIFE😀😀😀