Many of my friends wonder how I can stay upbeat and happy for what seems like… all the time. How can I be so terribly optimistic, and how do I keep my thoughts on the lighter side.
Truth is, I wasn’t always like this, and even now I have my emotional times. There are many things I’ve learned, and many others I still need to learn, but I can truthfully say that my life has changed for the better in the past few years.
I attended boarding school during my high school years (Fall 2003 – Spring 2006) and I went through both good and very challenging times. Although you may think — what can you possibly go through during high school that is so challenging? You don’t understand anything about life at that point! — I can tell you that I had some emotional troubles that remain, up until today 5+ years after, some of the most challenging times in my life.
This turned me into a colder, more analytical person that would value others based on anything but their good personality. At the same time, I struggled with emotional challenges at school, I was facing difficulties with my family, and was hiding most of my feelings from everyone.
After a year or so, however, most of my problems were dissipating and the aura around me started getting lighter. My source of emotional pain was gone from my life, my difficulties with my family were mostly gone, and I started having a shift in my life. Things got much better, and continuing forward I continue to change my perspective and live a happy life.
The single, most powerful lesson I learned throughout all this was to be grateful. The more grateful I am for all the things I have in my life, the better things that flow into my life. As I smiled and gave thanks for the wonderful friends I had, my happiness was contagious and infected those around me. Soon my family and friends were happier, more accepting of me, and our relationship grew stronger.
This same gratitude has also allowed me to appreciate all the things that I used to ignore in my life. Now that I was not busy complaining about what I didn’t want or didn’t have, I opened my eyes in amazement and discovered more things to be grateful about. This attitude also allowed me to meet people I would otherwise have probably ignored in my life, and these people have allowed me to grow as a person and to achieve more of the things that I am grateful about now.
It’s a cycle, the more gratitude I had in my heart, and the more things I was genuinely grateful for, the more things that flowed into my life that allowed me to brighten up and be happy. I can truthfully say that I am very happy with my life. There is still a lot more for me to learn, but this is a lesson I wholeheartedly embrace and live in my daily life.
Thank you for reading! The fact that some of you took your time to read this is another thing I’m now grateful for!
If you would like to, please leave a comment sharing any personal thoughts, experiences, or ideas you may have. You can also leave a comment if you think there is more to it, or if you disagree with something I said.
Last Updated on January 14, 2023 by Omar Eduardo
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