Often we are confronted with unpleasant realities. The world is a place of constant change and turmoil, and thanks to the digital society’s obsession with the negative, it is almost natural to drift into a state of helplessness about the world, about life; to let the externalities of life trouble us to no end. The news is filled with stories of crime and war, social media with narcissism and contorted views of reality, and the vast majority of the people we come across on the street are wallowing in some form of misery. We are the most prosperous and yet the most discontented generation in human history.

Be that as it may, one does not have to be like that. All that you feel is not a result of what is happening around you, but how you decode it, how you perceive it, and ultimately how you react to it. The reason why two people born in the exact same circumstances with the exact same environment can differ so greatly in their success and happiness is chiefly their mindsets: how they interact with life itself. As the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius stated often in his writings, it is our perceptions, not what happens, that dictates everything. You are unhappy if you choose to be. You are hurt if you think you are. You are sad because somewhere in your mind you have decoded your present existence and found it wanting. Not that one should not strive for more. But there is a big difference between going after more positively and chasing after more negatively. The former brings growth, the latter brings desperation and, ultimately, a depleted spirit.

It is therefore critical to handle life, no matter what it throws at you, with a perception that enables you to do what you want to do. Because though we may not always have any control over what happens, we always, ALWAYS, have control over how we react. And how we react decides almost everything, because in the end world is a mirror, and your world is a reflection of you.

Be the kind of reflection you want to see.