by Lee VanAmee

Created on: August 24, 2010

With so much advice out there on how many dysfunctional relationships there are, we need to be reminded to also see the good in the people around us. 

If you ponder in your mind a kindness you remember, a good person you have always cherished, some laughs you have had with someone, even a pet, it makes you feel good. It reminds you of a positive time, a joyful event, and that there is good in the world. Of course, after you are done with that thought, you race back to your hurried life of stress and the national bad news and hurry here and hurry there. There in lies the problem and solution. We give ourselves time to take on all the stresses in the world but if we take a time out for some joyful thought or laughter, it is thought of as "a break from real life" or "non productive". When in essence we need to tip the scale to remind ourselves that the good in life and in people is reality also, it makes for a better experience and you need this balance to survive. 

Expectations have risen in every area of our lives and friends, family and coworkers are no exception to this rule. We all want everything in our life to flow and consistently move with us to our time table. When that doesn't happen we tend to take it out on the person rather than their behavior or circumstance. I have seen many times when people just have unrealistic expectations about a special event, party, wedding, etc and given how many people are involved it is amazing these events don't crumble from the beginning. So we are always vigilant to make sure everyone is "in check, on our time schedule, in our reality" when truly they are very different human beings than we are and holding them up to some unrealistic standard only makes the world more competitive. 

The best thing about being human is the magic. We get to feel emotions, feelings, thoughts. We are not machines even though it seems we try to be. We get to have the choice of people in our lives and we get to arrange our lives so that the good comes first and the bad is something we handle when needed. But, somehow we all get that balance turned around in our daily lives to do the opposite; like we are first on the defensive right from when we get up in the morning. We have to remember to counteract this behavior into a habit of replacing all the negative crap with some good and positive points. Once you start doing that you will appreciate everyone around you because you see the good in them also, that they are not machines either, they are fellow humans and have magic in them too.

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