Little Things that Matter Most in Life

Guest post by Deeksha Tripathi

Life is a gift of God to all of us. Whatever be its challenges, we have to face them all. Life is not the same always. Happiness and sadness are inseparable parts of life. Nobody has got a perfect life. Everyone faces ups and downs. Now, what’s important here is how we take things that come in our life every day.  Big things whether good or bad don’t happen every day. So life is basically made up of "Little Things". These little things matter most for our general happiness.

So, let’s take a look at some of the little things which matter most in our life.

Be Thankful to God

The first thing that is of utmost importance is being thankful for everything we have got in our life. If we are getting food to eat every day, clothes to wear, a permanent roof on our head to protect us from all types of weather we are luckier than 50% of the world’s population! So, need I give you more reasons to feel yourself truly blessed? You are extremely lucky if you have friends and family to look after you. Just look around you there are so many people who sleep on the roadside, hungry and thirsty. There are kids who unlike our kids live unprotected lives earning their bread on their own; deprived of education. Be thankful to God for all His gifts. Stop taking things for granted which you have got without much pain.

Think Positively

Depression, stress, frustration are parts of today’s life. These ultimately lead to negative thinking. We often start feeling that we are the unlucky ones, born to suffer. To avoid this negative thinking, we must focus on the things that make us happy. For instance, spending time with our loved ones, pursuing a hobby, doing some social work whatever makes us feel our worth we must do that. Moreover, as I said earlier we are luckier than 50% of world population who are actually leading a miserable life. So, bring positivity in your life by seeing the brighter aspect of life.

Be Generous

So, now we know that we are the lucky ones to have got whatever we possess! What we need to do after this realization is being generous in sharing what we have. Things which are useless to us can be of great value to others. So donate generously your old clothes, shoes, home furnishing, toys, edibles whatever you can. You can donate your things to anyone who is in need; your poor relatives, friends, servants or anyone around you.

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Be Honest to Yourself

Don’t ever lie to yourself. If you love something; admit and do it [provided it’s legal ;)] For example, if you love to listen to loud music or dance crazily do it whenever you can. Give due importance to your own space and enjoy it when you have it. When you are honest with yourself, you will be able to keep your promises to others too. It will increase your belief and esteem in yourself.

Have Pets

Having a pet is like having an unselfish and a loving friend by your side always. They don’t expect or complain about anything. They give you what you need the most- love! They bring happiness and positivity in your life by making you feel how important you are for them. Innocence and dedication of pets are incomparable. They make us smile even in the saddest days of our life.

Love Yourself

If you love yourself, only then you can love others. Self -respect and self-care are very essential. Look good, keep yourself fit, dress up well, put on a little make-up, carry right accessories and laugh a lot. These things gonna boost your self-confidence cheer you up always. Talk to your friends and family who bring positive vibes in your life. Have a positive self-image ’cause this same image gonna be reflected others. Enjoy going out and spending some time all alone.

Keep Your Surroundings Beautiful

If you live in a place which is messy, you start feeling low whether it’s your home or workplace. So, one very important though little, thing to feel good is keeping our place tidy and beautiful. Decorate your place the way you like, it surely gonna pep you up.

These little things definitely gonna bring some very positive changes in your life. So go ahead and enjoy all the shades of life and do make these little things a part of your life.

About the Author

Deeksha Tripathi is a blogger from India. She is a teacher, mom of a toddler and owner of "Wonderful Women" where she writes inspirational stories of real women who have made a difference to the world.

Blog:  Wonderful Women

Forgiveness: A Deliberate Process and a Real Faith

On certain parts of our lives, we cannot escape being hurt by the words or actions of others and this is the reality of inviting people into our lives.  At times, we have loose tongues and careless words that dug in deep.  We can even be hurt by strangers.  We get wounded.  Sadly, our lives can be disrupted by the actions of others.  But it doesn’t mean to make yourself a target or letting the offender off the hook.  Instead, you should help yourself and let yourself come to peace with what had happened.

Whether it’s a simple, straightforward spat with your better half/family member/friend, or a long-held resentment towards them, an unresolved dispute can be extremely stressful.  It can undercut the interpersonal relationships and sometimes it can even go deeper than you may realize.  It can lead to mental anguish and may affect your physical health too.

You may have noticed the changes in your breath depending on how you feel.  When you get angry, your heart beats faster and you tend to breathe more quickly, that activate the sympathetic nervous system, gearing us up for fight-or-flight mode which results in numerous changes in the body.  When you are stressed, your heart rate and blood pressure spike up temporarily; blood flow in the body moves away from your organs, weakening the immune system; you may suffer from insomnia, depression, and even increase the risk of heart disease. However, there is one thing that you can do in order to interrupt this mental and physical response and manage your emotions is to “Forgive.”  Yes! Forgiveness is a strong medicine for this.  It calms stress levels leading to better health and well-being.

But the question is what forgiveness really is?  Is it just about saying the words?

No, it’s not so at all.

It’s not just about saying the words.  Instead, forgiveness is about the goodness in you.  It is a decision that an individual makes to conquer the hurt inflicted upon them by the wrongdoer.  It’s an act of letting go of negative feelings that one have towards someone who has wronged them.

Forgiveness is not just a one-time act, it’s a deliberate process and it might take an amount of time to work through our emotional baggage and pain after certain offenses committed against us before we can truly forgive.  Although you may initially struggle to forgive the wrongdoer, there are still the reasons to “let it go” and set yourself free from the burden that comes with holding onto a grudge.

To forgive someone, first develop empathy meaning try to understand the feelings of the wrongdoer who now seeks your forgiveness.  Put yourself in the wrongdoer’s shoes and then decide.

Nevertheless, your decision to forgive someone doesn’t mean shutting down your own feelings, it doesn’t mean what happened to you wasn’t wrong, it doesn't mean excusing the wrong done to you, nor it does mean forgetting because it's normal and usual for memories to be triggered in the future, but it does mean acknowledging that the price of being alive includes some inescapable pain and forgiving the wrongdoer remove the power for the hurt to destroy you or to define you.

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There is a question that people often ask themselves which becomes more overriding as the months pass by and that question is "to forgive or not to forgive?"

Well, forgiveness is indeed a choice that needs to be made as often as your emotions shift.  It is a kind of gift that you give to yourself to free you from the past hurt, pain, grudges and release you into the present.

Forgiveness is the spirit of forgiving that signifies that we have faith; faith in the God, faith in a relationship with the person and of course faith in a person.  However, one cannot forgive every offender, there may be exceptions and by that I mean if a person has been sexually abused, if a person is murdered, if someone is doing the same things over and over again, in such case they become more empowered if forgiven so we can’t forgive them or at least I can’t.  Because there are some people who are mean-spirited, obnoxious, and/or untrustworthy, who will never change no matter what happens or what you do.  In this case, you need to quit expecting them to be different and should change the way you respond to them.

What if you are the wrongdoer and you seek forgiveness for your misstep?

The best things to do are look into the person’s eyes and express your guilt, your regression, and/or your apology with your eyes, your gestures, your words, and the tone of your voice and basically your heart.  These are the actions that will comfort you both.  So go ahead and apologize for your wrongdoing to the people that you really have to; it is possible you will end up a much better and a fulfilling relationship.

People will continue to wound you through your life and it’s only up to you not to hold on to the betrayals.  As long as you're in a state of withholding forgiveness, you’ll feel like you're being trapped in a prison of your own making.  So don’t let the past offenses keep its arms around your neck.  Leave the pain and bitterness behind by bestowing the gift of forgiveness upon the wrongdoer so you can enjoy the present.

Just remember: Forgiveness really matters, and the forgiver will certainly be its primary beneficiary.

Stay Blessed, Be Happy...!! :-)

Preeti