Seeking Life Lessons

[Pisken]

I'm at a low point of my life right now and I was musing over other peoples' lives. Does everyone go through hard times like I am? How is a 'normal' life lived? Am I missing out on something important?

I'm thinking of making a sign and going downtown that just says 'Seeking Life Lessons' in hopes that someone or maybe even a few people can sit down with me a while and talk about what they have learned in their lives, both positive and negative.

Before I whip out the sharpie and a big piece of cardboard, I thought I would post here and see what kind of advice for life my peers can give me.

What has life taught you that you'd like to share?

[Deleted]

Everyone goes through rough times. I don't know what type of problems it is you have to deal with, but whatever it is, just try get passed it. Finding a hobby or distraction can take your mind off things.
And if you're confident enough to grab a sign, go to town and 'seek life lessons', then go for it ^^
I wouldn't guarantee that you find anything interesting, but I may be wrong.
If there's anything life has taught me, it's that it can't be taught, you have to discover it for yourself

[primusl0l]

Life has taught me that we tend to THINK that other people have these super amazing awesome lives compared to us when in reality the grass is not most definetly not green.....oh maybe on the outside for the few seconds or minutes of a glance you have at a specific persons life.....BUT there's almost always strings-attached to it. A normal life is nothing anyone can tell you is, everyone is different....a life doing 1 thing to me might seem wasted for you...and vice versa. You're never going to find happiness if you rely on someone else to tell you what your version of a normal life is. One good example being some people can't stand kids and never have them, some people couldn't imagine life without having kids.

It took me until I was about 21+ years old to realize this....but since I have.... I am 100 times more happier/confident and content with life and I couldn't give 2 fucks about what anyone thinks.

[belfpala]

You might want to consider speaking to a professional therapist.

Otherwise, just find something meaningful to yourself. It might be a career, it might just be a hobby. Doesn't matter. Everyone feels down and out of it now and then. When I feel that way I might...

* Play with one of my swords. Swinging it around is fun.
* Photography. Just wandering around looking at things is very therapeutic, even if I don't get any good photos out of it.
* Music. Maybe just play my guitar or do some recording with my basic home studio setup.
* Read. Escape a bit into some fantasy or sci-fi.
* Go out. Sometimes being around friends is the best thing.

It'll vary for everyone of course, and if your condition is too deep for any simple thing to help with... professional therapist, like I said.

[Vizardlorde]

Ive had some bad experiences but when i hear about the lives of other people it really makes me glad ive had such a privileged life, so :
Lesson number one: don't take anything for granted.
Ever heard about the sayings of Jesus or Confucius? They are not exactly the same and if you are do not believe in a god Confucius's might be easier to follow. My example i was asked out by 2 great girls and i rejected them, I asked out 2 pretty girls i got rejected, now i think im in love with one the of the girls i rejected and it's a very complex situation.
Lesson number two: don't do to other's what you don't want others to do to you( you might also interpret it as karma is a bitch or life has some messed up twists)

Ill continue the list later

[Deleted]

To me, life lessons seem to be something that one gains through experience. They can't really be taught or shared, just lived, because everyone reacts to situations differently and and forms different conclusions in response. It's very difficult, for example, to convey to someone things like the old cliché of, "Time heals all wounds.", and have them really take it in without actually going through heartache/loss and then experiencing a dulling of the pain later, down the line.

Chin up, OP. Hope you turn a corner soon. It's always good to talk things out, face to face, with people you can trust and open up to.

[AbsolutePitch]

A lot of people have covered this already. I've been through some very rough patches in my life due to chronic depression, but everytime it comes around you have to learn how to deal with it. The good thing about depressions though is that when you're at the bottom they're nowhere to go but up. It's fairly cliche, but it rings true.

My advice, and this is something extremely important: find something productive, progressive and consistant to do with your free time. When I say both productive and progressive, I mean something that will yield long-term results and requires training, practice and a lot of investment, whether it's emotional or intellectual or just time. For me, going to the gym for the last two years has done wonders. It's brilliant for your mental health, your physical health, your confidence, and it gives you results that you can measure and therefore a sense of progress and accomplishment. I've also started taking piano lessons, so I'd advise you to find something artsy to invest in, like learning to play an instrument and writing music, or painting or writing or something along those lines that you can grow and take places with you (like competitions or open-mic performances or w/e).

What this does is distract you from idleness, which leads to a f***load of bad consequences. Another piece of advice is make sure you're taking good care of your health; sometimes that contributes to the problem or even causes it in the first place. Make sure you don't stay up too late, nothing good happens after 2 AM, especially from a mental health point of view. Make sure you're eating frequently enough and well enough, and get plenty of exercise. Another thing is, try to socialize (which I suppose you're doing with this thread). Now socializing doesn't necessarily mean mingling with high class guests at some fancy party, but engage in dialogue and discussion with people, even if it's in a professional sense or something; don't isolate yourself too much.

Yeah, that's about all I can say for now. Hope it helps mate.

[kumduh]

I was assigned to read this book for a history class, and it had some paragraphs that I found to be very profound.

"Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. It was the very discomfort, the blows, the cold, the hunger and thirst, that kept us aloft in the void of bottomless despair ... within five minutes begins the distribution of bread, of bread-Brot-Broid-chleb-pain-lechem-keynér, of the holy grey slab which seems gigantic in your neighbor's hand, and in your own hand so small as to make you cry. It is a daily hallucination to which in the end one becomes accustomed: but at the beginning it is so irresistible that many of us, after long discussions on our own open and constant misfortune and the shameless luck of others, finally exchange our ration, at which the illusion is renewed inverted, leaving everyone discontented and frustrated."

-Primo Levi, If this is a man: Survival in Auschwitz

[belfpala]

I was assigned to read this book for a history class, and it had some paragraphs that I found to be very profound.

It's not as profound, for several reasons, but probably my favorite quote ever comes from Kurt Vonnegut:

"And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep."

The keeping part. That's the key. Make it meaningful.

[AbsolutePitch]

I was assigned to read this book for a history class, and it had some paragraphs that I found to be very profound.

"Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. It was the very discomfort, the blows, the cold, the hunger and thirst, that kept us aloft in the void of bottomless despair ... within five minutes begins the distribution of bread, of bread-Brot-Broid-chleb-pain-lechem-keynér, of the holy grey slab which seems gigantic in your neighbor's hand, and in your own hand so small as to make you cry. It is a daily hallucination to which in the end one becomes accustomed: but at the beginning it is so irresistible that many of us, after long discussions on our own open and constant misfortune and the shameless luck of others, finally exchange our ration, at which the illusion is renewed inverted, leaving everyone discontented and frustrated."

-Primo Levi, If this is a man: Survival in Auschwitz

Going off on that 'happiness' tangent, I saw this video recently that may be of use:

[Ok, apparently I can't post links cause my account is fairly new. Go on YouTube and search for 'TED artificial happiness' and the video name is simply 'synthetic happiness']

It's one of those TED videos, about 10 minutes long. I found it interesting.