A simple comic about keeping things in perspective

[CarolineSiede]

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/12/a-simple-comic-about-keeping-t.html

…

[Mister44]

Or maybe not focus on the one bad thing, and enjoy everything else. At least I keep telling myself that.

Of course when things fall apart, that gives some people purpose.

[DimeSpin]

I’m happy for people who feel this way. I also want to punch them in the face while screaming tho

[Uthor]

“Look how nicely those other stacks of blocks are standing,” said no one currently being crushed under their own stack.

[LemoUtan]

But is there any evolutionary advantage to the calm observer? I keep noticing no tigers out to get me and am still here, too.

[anon29631895]

It can be kind’a fun knocking all the other stacks down…

[doop]

Other keys to happiness:

• Low standards
• No expectations
• Just generally not giving a shit if you can at all avoid doing so

[crashproof]

Buddhism/Taoism/Stoicism/Newt Scamander’s philosophy/“Fuck It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way” in a nutshell:

This is going to hurt. Shit is going to be bad. Life isn’t fair. You can’t be as happy as you want to, or as happy as you deserve to be. You can’t control everything.

But you do have some control over your reaction, and can choose not to make yourself suffer more than is going to happen anyway. And when you fail at that – which you will – you can choose whether or not to beat yourself up over it and make yourself suffer a third time.

It’s… not really a secret to happiness. But probably better than the alternative.

(And no, I don’t believe that depressed people can “simply” choose not to be depressed. That’s squarely in the “unfair” part. But I do believe that if someone’s an asshole, if I get ineffectually angry about it and rant for the next hour, I will be unhappier than if I just go “whatever” and move on.)

(Aaaaand, I don’t believe any of this means you should passively accept all the crap in life that you actually can do something about.)

[SenorSchaffer]

This is my strategy for tidying up our house.

[fake_tudza]

If I remember it right, the oldest Buddhist text says something like, “A worldling who experiences painful feelings experiences two types of pain, physical and mental.”