{"id":1537,"date":"2012-01-10T09:35:03","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T17:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matthewliberty.com\/?p=1537"},"modified":"2012-01-10T09:35:03","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T17:35:03","slug":"avoiding-the-rabbits-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threeadventure.com\/matthewliberty\/2012\/01\/10\/avoiding-the-rabbits-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding the Rabbit&#8217;s Hole"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/37996594214@N01\/51722696\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured\" title=\"idea\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/27\/51722696_3f6fc66ff0_m.jpg\" alt=\"idea\" width=\"240\" height=\"229\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Love it when the lightbulb goes off! Epiphany!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I think each one of us is a diamond in the rough. Our actions and choices determine whether we will stay in the rough, or come out of that and shine.<\/p>\n<p>Life can be very difficult, I get that. Really bad things can happen to really good people, I get that too. The point is, life happens, with or without you\u0085it just does. Even though this is super easy to understand, I struggled with this for a long time\u0085and I know millions of other people do too.<\/p>\n<p>I was constantly butting heads with life, not understanding why I was dealt this hand and not that one or not given that opportunity. This behavior is pretty typical for people in general but when you suffer from depression, like I did\/ do, fighting things you have no control over is a complete waste of valuable energy and time. Doing this sent me down the rabbit\u0092s hole more often than not and once I get down there, it\u0092s a battle to come back; which is why it is so important for me to avoid the traps.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest trap I\u0092ve learned to avoid is fighting the things that I cannot change. I can\u0092t change the fact that there are idiot drivers out there that don\u0092t use their turn signals or that cut me off. I can\u0092t change when the sun rises and sets. I can\u0092t change the miscarriage we went through. I can\u0092t change that I have something like depression. I can\u0092t change yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>How crappy is that? You mean I have to just deal with all that? The quick answer is yes.<\/p>\n<p>No wonder people are angry and disillusioned. No wonder people get so frustrated and give up. No wonder there\u0092s so much violence and crime. No wonder people don\u0092t smile at each other and say hello on the streets. Life sucks; and to top it all off we are shown how much more it sucks every time we turn on the news. We have wars, Sandusky, Wiener politicians, corruption, greedy jack holes, a broken government, crappy economy\u0085are you feeling good yet?<\/p>\n<p>It\u0092s so hard to put a smile on your face when you look at the overwhelming piles of dung being shoveled on to us minute by minute, day after day\u0085but then something struck me, it was genius!<\/p>\n<p>I can choose how I react to all of this that I can\u0092t change!<\/p>\n<p>Simple but true, and quite difficult to enact and be consistent with but there it is\u0085don\u0092t let all the crap, all the horrible things going on around you own YOUR thoughts, ideas, life, or mood. You want to fight for something? Fight for your life, do whatever you have to do to shine through all the darkness.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u0092t change the news but I can turn my television off. I can\u0092t change that it\u0092s cold outside but I can enjoy it for what it is and realize the temperature will be different tomorrow, next week, or next month. I can\u0092t change those people that won\u0092t smile at me on the streets but I can smile at them. I can\u0092t change Sandusky but I can fight for children if that\u0092s a cause near and dear to me. I can\u0092t change that cracker jack driver in front of me not using his turn signal but I can realize that maybe it\u0092s broken or possibly he is distracted because his dad or son just died.<\/p>\n<p>Life is about perspective. Life is about owning your thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody can make you feel a certain way unless you give them the right to do so.<\/p>\n<p>This new way of thinking was the most eye opening, empowering, and liberating thing so far in my 35 years. It has helped immensely with the depressions stuff so long as I am on top of things and remind myself that I own that moment and my thoughts. This way of thinking has helped me spend more days out of the rough, and more days shining. That\u0092s the goal right? We can\u0092t stay out of the rough every single day forever, but we can fight for the shine! How bad do you want it?<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"height: 15px;margin-top: 10px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: currentColor;float: right\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=f02ded7a-9160-425b-bd27-20b9d53b31ee\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think each one of us is a diamond in the rough. Our actions and choices determine whether we will stay in the rough, or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,20,21,25,27,29,32,33,39,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-depression","category-government","category-greed","category-humanity","category-inspiration","category-life","category-motivation","category-news-media","category-random-thoughts","category-self-help","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Avoiding the Rabbit&#039;s Hole - Matthew Liberty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.threeadventure.com\/matthewliberty\/2012\/01\/10\/avoiding-the-rabbits-hole\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Avoiding the Rabbit&#039;s Hole - Matthew Liberty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I think each one of us is a diamond in the rough. 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