"Keep a positive attitude!"
I suppose we've all been told that, at one time or another... usually by well-meaning people who were trying to help us out of a dark mood.
Well-meant, or not, it's not always a very helpful thing... at least not in the functional sense. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to actually sit in our sense of desperation and misery, in order to fully experience it and then move on.
Feeling like everything is a struggle wears a person down, over time. Often there is nothing in particular that serves as a trigger... personally speaking, I know that when I find myself sliding into daydreams about "better times," then things right noew are not really going as I might wish.
Call it an escape, if you will.
Maybe it's a "safety valve" that reminds me that I just can't face any more setbacks in the present, so I let my mind wonder to a place that is not a setback.
So I found myself considering the — dead serious — question of whether such a thing as "better days" even exist. Or are all days pretty much served up the same way... and it's up to us to play as many consecutive difficult hands as we might be served up?
Made me think about that old conversation with God someone was having, which ended with: "Maybe God will never serve me up more challenges than I can handle, but sometimes I just wish God had a little less confidence in my ability to overcome ANYthing!"
I am trying to remember the last time it felt like I was just coasting in life... even if just for a week; a day, even.
I think it was when I went on holiday back to Denmark, in the summer of 2015. Going on ten years...
It gets difficult to stay "positive and inspirational" when you feel like you're pretty much worn down to the knees. Well... at least doing so starts to feel disingenuous.
What wears us down? What makes us start dreaming of better days, rather than actively creating them?
I can't speak to anyone else's experience, but I know that it's a struggle to stay positive when you keep trying one different thing after another, only to be met with repeated disappointment.
I contemplate my prior train of thought concering the last time I was able to coast a little, and change the angle of attack to instead ask "when was the last time something you tried to better yourself turned out 'as expected' or 'better than expected?'"
The sound of crickets chirping...
So, next question: When things consistently go poorly, in spite of many and varied choices, maybe it's your choices that are bad...
It's something "neurodivergent" people — such as myself — struggle with consistently. When feels important to us seldom matters to the broader world, and what matters to the broader world often feels offputting to the point of abhorrent, to us.
And because I was never much good at "faking it," perhaps there's my answer about the dreams of better days. Days that — very likely — cannot even *exist, * because the world simply isn't made like that!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about you? Do you ever daydream about better days? Do you think those better days even EXIST? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 2025.04.14 23:29 PDT
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