Coronavirus and Brussels Sprouts (DEALING WITH STRESS)

Hi, I’m Paul Krismer, and this week we’re doing another COVID-19 edition of how to be happy. That’s a weird thing to have to try to be when things are tough in the world, and they are tough right now. In fact, I’ve got a lot of things to complain about. I don’t like the fact that my mom’s at risk. I don’t like the fact that I can’t see all my friends and family like I ordinarily would. I don’t like the fact that my business is going down. I can’t go and speak in big conference events; they’re all cancelled. I don’t like those things. I wish it were different. It should be different, right? That’s what we’re all saying. Whatever your complaints are, you want the world to be different than it is, and that’s a natural thing. It’s good thinking on your part, but that’s the gap where the suffering is. In this week, we’re going to talk about how to deal with that kind of suffering.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned, and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. So here we are, thinking that we want the world to be a certain way and it’s not that way. We don’t want COVID-19. We think the world shouldn’t have COVID-19 and all the consequences, economic, health, relationships, all that stuff. We want it to be different, and that gap between what is the real world and what we think it should be, what we want, that in fact is the stuff that makes us suffer. That’s exactly where the suffering occurs. It’s this space between how we wish it to be and how it really is, and we can get rid of that suffering.

It isn’t easy, but there’s a Greek philosopher, a guy named Epictetus, who talked about imagine if the world, the whole of your life, were like a banquet, a big dinner party, and you’re outside in this huge table and there’s food going around. It’s being passed from one person to the other as it goes down, and some of the food that comes, it’s great. You’re really happy to take a little bit and yum yum yum, you enjoy it. Then, at other times, it’s something disgusting, like it’s Brussels sprouts or something like that, and you go oh, you know, I don’t really want the Brussels sprouts, but that’s what life is giving you in this moment. That’s all there is right now, it’s Brussels sprouts. I could wish that it were something better. I could wish that it were scalloped potatoes or creamed corn or something that I like, but it isn’t, it is what it is, and that’s life.

So when the dinner party passes something around, we don’t have to say oh, I’m really glad this is my preference when we’re lying to ourselves. But we have to simply acknowledge, this is Brussels sprouts, and right now I’m gonna eat Brussels sprouts. I may not take a ton of Brussels sprouts, I may not take any more than I need to take, but in this beautiful world we live in, sometimes we get Brussels sprouts. So, that’s the challenge, to celebrate each item that comes around as best we can, and not wish for, not believe that it should be something different. It should be what it is, that’s life. The world should be filled with a pandemic right now because that’s what it is, and your wishing for it to be something else won’t change anything. So we take the banquet bit by bit, enjoying every little piece that we can, including whatever we can out of this situation.

Right now, COVID-19 sucks in many, many ways, but it’s still the banquet that is our universe. Nowhere in the universe did nature, did Mother Earth, ever promise you to give you what you want when you want it, and still on the whole, this is a pretty beautiful place. It might take people that we love, it might cause us to suffer economically or otherwise in our relationships, but we take what we can from this beautiful banquet and we be grateful for what’s coming around, acknowledging simply what is. And if we can take that philosophy to heart, we can start to let go of some of that suffering between what we wish were true and what is. So, that’s my lesson for this week, is just say yes to what is. It doesn’t mean you prefer it, but you acknowledge this is reality. It is what is, and I’m gonna take what is and make it the banquet that is today.

Okay, if you like this kind of content, like my videos, share it, and if you enjoy this kind of stuff, subscribe to my channel. You get a new video every Sunday morning. I’m Paul Krismer, I’m your happiness expert. Thanks for watching.