Anxious People
Lisa Andrews-Lafoon
Personal Development Coach, Yavapai Trails Association, Amateur Landscape Photographer, and Hiker
October 28, 2020
“They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows.” Fredrick Backman, Anxious People
So, obviously, I just finished reading Anxious People by Fredrick Backman. I enjoyed the story very much, but inside each story are little gems of psychological wisdom. Those phrases and descriptions that hit us in our heart. The one I have quoted here is, to me, the epitome of hope. I write and talk a lot of hope. It is a special character strength in that it is the only one that requires negative circumstances. Hope also consistently looks forward. Hope looks for the answer, sets the goal, and knows beyond a doubt that the lousy circumstances of now are temporary. It doesn’t wallow in the mistakes of our past or sum us up by them. Hope knows that as long as you are alive, there is an opportunity to get it right.
In this book Fredrick Backman speaks on the subject of suicide. While he manages to do this without the book becoming so dark we start to think about suicide ourselves, he does so with a lot of heart and empathy for anyone that is feeling so overwhelmed or out of sorts. He shines a light on the fact that any one of us, or our loved ones, could find ourselves without hope. And if those times come my friends, there is never shame in getting help. And for those of us just going through this world, maybe with a strangle hold on hope, we never know what one act of kindness may do for another.
Here is a sum up from Fredrick Backman…
“Perhaps we hurried past each other in a crowd today, and neither of us noticed, and fibers of your coat brushed against mine for a single moment and then we were gone. I don’t know who you are.
But when you get home this evening, when the day is over and the night takes us, allow yourself a deep breath. Because we made it through this day as well.
There’ll be another one along tomorrow.”
There will be another tomorrow and another and another…
Love and kindness,
Lisa
Originally published at www.lisa-andrews-lafoon.com