What sort of thing have you learned that made a change in how you viewed the world? From the "Cheese thread", one that hit me a couple years ago was someone telling me that wine isn't meant to taste "good". It's meant to taste "interesting". The realization that there is more than just tasty and delicious as measures of the quality of food and drink reshuffled how I think about eating and drinking.
i have a doc i keep with these things so i dont forget....heres a few... It's not over till it's over. Talent is as common as mud. 20 hrs for a new skill; 10,000 to master it Respect peoples decisions. (Even if they're stupid. The person might know it's stupid but want to do it anyway.) Don't coddle people. They have survived without you and can continue to. They can take care of themselves so wait till they ask for help. Just because you can say it, does not mean you should. (Even if it's the truth. The truth can upset people.) Take your meds; the doctor will tell you when you don't need them anymore don't tell strangers sad stories; it scares them you are not the center of attention nor do you have to be choose kindness over judgment there's a lot of things you don't know You do you. You are a fire, passions and life, doubt, anxiety and depression are a blanket trying to snuff you out. Your job it to burn the blanket. Bad things happen; bad things will continue to happen. Do what you can and don’t ignore it.
Way back in highschool I read about peeps interviewing people who were 100+ years old, trying to find a common denominator for a long life. Apparently the common denominator was they were all happy(not good eating, or not smoking etc). I became a significantly more cheerful person after that(though I am still default sad).
Just like how you can't read other people's minds, they cannot read yours. Other people have a rich inner life that you cannot see at a glance, just like you do.
You cannot 'be' incorrectly - you can't be a bad example of some group of people by simply existing, existing is a neutral action. You exist, and your experience simply is just that: your experience. This has been a very useful and calming realisation :o
Not everything you do has to be socially accepted as productive; it's fine to do things to just take pleasure in doing.
this is more a change in how i view myself, but i view the world through myself, so: there are parts of me that i'm not inclined to value, but which other people value enough to fight for, and for reasons that i can understand rationally. so, i think i can learn to accept and value those parts of myself, too. this is kind of scary, but i'm okay with that.
One big epiphany I've had is that everyone is the best at SOMETHING, regardless of if it's measurable or not. You may feel ordinary, but you are capable of things no one else can do, even if they seem ridiculous.
