Beyond Good and Bad
Daily Chase #91
We instinctively label experiences as "good" or "bad."
The traffic jam is bad. The perfect parking spot is good.
Yet this constant categorizing keeps us tethered to a rollercoaster of reactions, rising and falling with each passing circumstance.
What if we could step beyond these labels? What if we recognized that life, in its natural rhythm, contains both winter and spring — times of scarcity and abundance, challenge and ease?
To pretend there is no winter is as foolish as believing spring will never return.
Our tolerance for inconvenience reflects our capacity for centeredness. When minor disruptions — a delayed flight, a forgotten password, an unexpected detour — can derail our emotional state, we remain leaves in the wind rather than trees with deep roots.
True poise comes not from avoiding life's turbulence but from maintaining our center within it.
Think of each small annoyance as a weight in your mental gym.
Without awareness, you simply walk through this gym, passing countless opportunities to build strength. But with presence, you recognize each trigger as a barbell waiting to be lifted, each breath as a rep building mental fitness.
This isn't about stoic indifference or forced positivity. It's about perspective — understanding that in five years, today's frustration will likely be forgotten. It's about remembering that among eight billion humans, each starring in their own movie, your momentary struggle is both deeply personal and cosmically small.
The path to emotional regulation begins with recognizing when we've been triggered, then choosing our response rather than defaulting to reaction.
Through this practice, we don't just survive life's inevitable inconveniences — we transform them into stepping stones toward unshakable centeredness.
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I always think my job as an animal control officer has helped me deal with constant disruptions, changes in direction and inconveniences better than the average person. I can be called away in the middle of making dinner or 15 minutes after I’ve fallen asleep at night so when I have minor inconveniences, it doesn’t bother me very much at all.👍