Our Very Human Individuality and Commonality

I’m sure that you would agree that no two lives are exactly the same. This is true with people’s personalities, physical fitness, intelligence, disabilities, routines, and many other aspects of our lives. I’ve always been very impressed by how all humans are unique individuals. Sure, we may find we have a lot of similarities with many, many other people but we’ll never find someone that is exactly the same as us.

I’m pretty certain that if you met someone who looked exactly like you and their thinking seemed to match yours to a T, you would be greatly surprised and maybe even super shocked. But it’s so very unlikely that a meeting like that would ever happen. I’ve lived and visited tons of cities and countries and have met thousands of people, but I’ve never met another person just like me.

That is one of the things I get from doing so much traveling. I’ve meet and seen people from all over and they are all unique. I am always amazed at how very different people can be, especially once I meet and get to know them.

When it comes to travel, I owe my father big time. My father and I were so very different, but he introduced me to traveling and all the benefits it brings to a person, not just during or immediately after the travel but, pretty much, to their entire life going forward.

No, my father and I were not similar to each other in most ways, but he introduced me to this one thing that we both love that has been life changing in so many good ways.

It started a long time ago, when I was only 15. He took me and the family to Ankara, Turkey when he changed jobs. And, wow, did that ever change my life! It was such a positive thing for me in that it gave me the travel bug and introduced me to different cultures. That experience pushed me to travel throughout the rest of my life, and so I have continued to reap the benefit of those experiences, seeing different cultures, and meeting all these really different and interesting people.

So, yes, I have done a ton of traveling including visiting 96 different countries. My strong desire to travel even motivated me to plan my honeymoon, not just as a destination vacation, but as a trip to go around the world visiting numerous places, and we spent a wonderful 28 days doing that.

I am of the belief that if all humans could do a lot of traveling, it would make the world a safer and better place. It’s funny how we think we know what other people, or other cultures, will be like just from the things we’ve read or from movies or TV shows. But I think it takes actually being there to see and understand others and realize that we’re all just human beings who are not really all that different after all.

So, as unique as people are, it helps to realize that we all share being human and having really human experiences, emotions, problems, and hopes. If we could all appreciate these commonalities while valuing the fascinating uniqueness that we each have, I believe we could all be more sympathetic, understanding, and supportive of our fellow human beings all over the world.

Acceptance in the Here and Now

I noticed that I and a number of other people are having a hard time with life events recently. We will all have difficult times to deal with but how events affect us now and impact us in the long run depends on how we deal with them. If you’ve followed this blog for a while then you’ve probably read my thoughts on living in the now and how it affects your health, stress level, and just enjoyment of life. Well, the same kind of thing is key for dealing with hard times.

When we find ourselves in an emotional or difficult moment–whether it’s a bad injury, a deadline you’ve missed at work, or the loss of a loved one, one of the first things that comes to mind is wanting or wishing you could change the circumstances you find yourself in. There’s no point in doing this but we all do it just the same. If you hold onto those thoughts, you’ll just be torturing yourself which does you and those around you no good at all and can be harmful in the long run.

It’s true that some situations can actually be changed for the better, but, unfortunately, there are a lot of things you can’t change and some things we shouldn’t try to change. Sometimes trying to change the difficult thing we’re dealing with is just going to waste a lot of energy on a losing battle. Sometimes it can make something even worse.

So, the first thing you need to do with any situation is to accept what has already happened. The past cannot be changed. If you missed that deadline, well, you can’t go back and get the work done on time any longer, but you can move forward and get the job done as soon as possible or, if it’s just too late, put it aside and pick up the next most important task. If someone has passed away, celebrate who they were and how they have enriched your life while realizing and accepting that everyone will pass on and that it’s just part of this wonderful miracle of life we have been lucky enough to experience.

Accepting and living in the moment won’t make the stress or pain of what has happened go away completely and that’s okay too. Disappointment, pain, and sorrow are normal when things get rough. It’s an emotional reaction that we don’t choose. But we can choose how long we are going to dwell on it. Those emotions are a reaction to the circumstance, but the initial reaction is momentary.

So, go ahead and feel your emotions and accept them as normal and natural but let go of any attempts to control what has already happened. This will make it so much easier to accept difficult circumstances. When you do, it will reduce the emotional and physical pain and problems you’ll have while dealing with the situation.

That’s what it means to live in the now and accept and appreciate the moments we have, the good and the bad. It’s just not worth spending your precious time wishing things had been different. And it’s not worth your precious energy to try changing the present in an attempt to rewrite the past, no matter how bad an effect it has had on you and your loved ones.

So even though you can’t change the past, you can change the here and now and you can change what happens next. The only thing that can do this and can change how a difficult situation will affect you, is in how you deal with it in the moment you have, that moment of the here and now.