Mentally Disturbed

The great Stoic philosopher Epictetus once said, "People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them." In other words, events don't mentally disturb you. You become mentally disturbed by thinking disturbing thoughts about the events.

So the more disturbing thoughts you think about events, the more mentally disturbed you'll be. And the less disturbing thoughts you think about events, the less mentally disturbed you'll be.

You say: "How's it possible to NOT be mentally disturbed over clearly bad events? Wouldn't an event such as having your home ransacked, your car vandalized, or being fired from your job cause you to be disturbed?"

The answer is yes and no. Yes, if you simply see the bad in the event. No, if you see some good in the event.

Let's use having your home ransacked as an example. Having your home ransacked can be a traumatic experience, but it doesn't have to be if you ask yourself "How can I benefit from this?"

If you really think deeply enough, you'll see the benefits of having your home ransacked. Benefits include becoming mentally tougher and less sensitive to harassments, motivation to move to a better neighborhood or become rich enough to do so, and becoming better at problem solving. If you focus on these benefits, you'll be a lot less disturbed and able to handle the situation better.

So the trick to handling events is in the way you mentally frame them. The more negative you mentally frame events, the more mentally disturbed you become, possibly leading to mental illness and failure. The more positive you mentally frame events, the more mentally undisturbed you become, possibly leading to mental health and success.

Al A. Gammate
http://www.theguaranteedcure.com/

No Time

Today, I have much to get done, but have little time left. If I need to get everything done, I need to move fast. But speed sometimes causes sloppiness and errors. And sloppiness and errors cause me to lose more time, since I have to do my tasks over again.

I'm wondering if it's possible to be fast and accurate at the same time. As I'm thinking, I realize that the answer is yes and no. No, if you go too fast. Yes, if you go fast, but not so fast that you lose accuracy.

So the trick is to take your time and aim, but hurry up as you do it. In addition, I realize that it's okay to do good work, but not okay to do perfect work. Perfect work wastes too much valuable time. In these modern times, time is such a limited and valuable commodity. So it's important not to waste it.

Al A. Gammate
http://www.theguaranteedcure.net/

Why do bad things happen to good people?

I had an especially challenging day today. My car was having trouble, so I dropped it off at a local car repair shop this morning.

When I walked back to my apartment, I noticed that my apartment was having trouble, since maintenance workers were taking a part of my wall out to get to some water pipes.

To top this off, I stayed up around the clock last night to catch up on paperwork at my workplace, and was beyond tired. Today was my day off, so I figured that I would drop my car off to get fixed, then would catch up on some sleep in my nice quiet apartment.

But wait! It doesn't stop there. Though I dropped my car off at the car repair shop at 8:00 AM, they called my cell phone at 2:00 PM to tell me that they haven't worked on it yet! In addition, they tell me that a much bigger problem is preventing them from working on the initial problem, and that I would have to leave my car there for a few days and fork over an additional $500.

Say whaaat? I told them to forget it.

Now why can't I have a life free of hassle? Why must things go wrong? Why do bad things have to happen? I pondered this until a flash went off in my head. Then I remembered reading "The Science of Success" by James Arthur Ray.

In it, he was discussing the seven Super Laws. And one of the Super Laws that stuck out was the Law of Polarity. This law basically states that nothing can exist without its opposite! Right away, dualities started popping into my head: light-darkness, male-female, alpha-omega, sun-moon, success-failure, rich-poor, and so on.

Then it hit me! Good things and bad things are dualities of each other. In fact, they are one and the same. If you're a negative thinker, you'll see things as bad. If you're a positive thinker, you'll look for some benefits in what has happened. And if you look hard enough, you'll find them.

I immediately applied this to the "bad" events of my day and began to see them as "good" events, in that I started seeing how these events could benefit me.

So the next time you're going through a bad situation, ask yourself "How is this benefiting me?" And if you look hard enough, you'll see the benefits.

Al A. Gammate
http://www.theguaranteedcure.com/