Left Neglected

I've done a lot of reading lately. If you were to ask me a few years ago if I enjoyed reading, I would've either lied and said, "I LOVE to read" (just to make myself look smarter) or I would've laughed, implying "No freakin' way". When you're unemployed, such as myself, you discover you have a lot of time on your hands (more than you'd like). Reading has really helped occupy my time in a healthy way. A book I read recently, Left Neglected, was more than a source of time occupancy. It gave me perspective on life and what is really important. This book, although fiction, tells a story that certainly could be true. A woman juggles the roles of wife, mother of 3 children and a extremely busy recruiting consultant. On her way to a meeting, she gets into an accident. She wakes up in the hospital, confused and unable to detect the left side of her body. After several (but not enough) weeks of physical therapy she is discharged (enforced by her capped insurance). She experiences moments of not only physical ailments, but emotional frustration. A Harvard MBA graduate cannot go to the bathroom on her own. A top executive HR consultant drools on the left side of her mouth without noticing. The debilitation is more than she can bear. Her progress and attitude is one to emulated. Overtime, she gains strength, develops more compassion, new interests and important perspective.
Although I am not left neglected (and pray that I never will be) I realized that we all have handicaps. Things happen in our life that debiliate us, recede our progress or prevent us from becoming who we always thought we wanted to be. We can choose to be bitter or deal with our new life or situation the best we can and recognize "the wisdom to know the difference" between what we can and cannot change. My life is certainly not how I pictured it 3 years ago. If my expecation was meant to be my reality, I'd be a health and fitness consultant changing peoples lives running marathons during my free time because I loved it. However, that was not my reality. I discovered I was somewhat socially anxious and "consulting" was not in my nature. As for running marathons, another lifetime perhaps. One was enough for me. Since this discovery, I've moved from place to place residing there an average of 1 year attempting one career after another. My resume is full of random jobs and experience, but I've stored volumes of critical life's lessons in my mental library.
In another book, How full is your bucket?, it examines the effects of negative and positive emotions. The story of American POWs in the Korean war is a powerful example of the damaging effects of negative emotions. These prisoners weren't subjected to horrific torture or starvation. Rather, they succumbed to death much quicker due to emotional trauma. The guards at times convinced the prisoners to betray their comrades destroying their cohesive and necessary for survival relationship thus ensuing negative emotions among each other. Only negative letters from home (overdue bills, dear John letters) were delivered. The guards kept the postive, loving letters. This resulted in what the soldiers called, "give up-itis", which often led a solider to detain himself in a corner under a blanket waiting to die.
At times, I'm guilty of give up-itis. Hopelessness is often the blanket that entraps us. How does one beat the disease? Fill your bucket with positive emotions by surrounding yourself with positive people. You can fill your own bucket by filling others. Do something nice for someone; even if it's giving them a simple compliment. This takes practice! A cheerful disposition isn't something that comes naturally to everyone. If you can only muster the energy for one positive facebook post, then do that. "Attitude of mind", my old choir teacher used to say. Get in the habit of doing it and let that be your focus.