Thought for the Week

Timothy D. Stein, MFT, CSAT

May 5, 2014

Many people find it hard to be happy because they see the past as better than it was, the present as worse than it is, and the future as less resolved than it will be.

I remember having a realization one day.  I had grown up listening to stories from my grandfather about “the good old days” and how wonderful they had been.  Then, one day, I did the math and realized that “the good old days” were smack dab in the middle of the great depression!  So the question is, was the great depression really not that bad or was my grandfather’s memory really terrible?  The answer is our memory plays tricks on us that skew our perception of reality.  For some people, the past looks rosy, the present seems overwhelming, and the future does not look to be any better.  However, in reality the past was both good and bad, the present is both comfortable and painful, and the future has potential for success and failure.

Am I looking at my situation through the lens of reality?  What might change in my life and my experience if I recognize the good and bad parts of the past, present, and future?