Chances are you’ve heard the term “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But what’s small stuff to one person could be enormous to another. So, how can anyone know when something is big enough to be worth sweating and when something is just not worth the negative energy it will most likely generate? There is no exact correct answer to this question. Still, a lot can be said regarding the idea, truth, and significance of the advice offered in this phrase. Let’s look further into how this phrase, when used daily, could be the most powerful sentence and even the best advice you ever receive. Like many of life’s biggest lessons, understanding the truth in those five little words requires someone to have experienced some not-so-small moments. I’ve come to realize that the biggest lessons we can take from the darker times in life are often the simplest ideas. If a person has never really lived through trauma and been forced to either give up or fight, then such a statement would be rather difficult for them to fathom. It all boils down to the importance of contrast. Almost all spiritual gurus around the globe agree that for a conscious being to awaken, there must be contrast in their life. Contrast, when it comes to spiritual growth, is paramount because, without it, it would be almost impossible for a person to realize when something is either positive or negative.
Contrast | Don’t sweat the small stuff
Let me provide an example to help further explain what I mean by contrast. It’s completely hypothetical and quite unlikely, but I believe it’ll help drive my point home. Let’s say you lived in a place where you never had the opportunity to soak up direct sunlight for the entirety of your life. You lived nineteen years before you personally experienced the feeling generated by standing in direct sunlight. Until that moment, you had no idea what you were missing, or not missing, for some of you sun haters out there. Because it was something you had never experienced first-hand, you were fine knowing that you’d never been exposed to full, direct sunlight. Suddenly, your reality has gone from one where the sun was something you were aware existed but had not felt personally to one where you are in complete awareness of what the sun’s power can provide. Your life will forever change because of this new experience. Depending on how the new experience affected you, a great change has occurred in your reality.
If you find the sun to be nothing special, you will go back to your overcast life and be happy and grateful that you live where you live and that you really don’t have to worry about the peskiness of the sun in the future. Now, if you found the feelings ignited in you by the sunlight that shined on you directly were positive or even mind-altering, you are now going to live in a reality where you are aware that something is missing. It will become something you seek to find down the road. What I mean by that is when it comes to creating and living a life that you enjoy and are content with, you must first understand contrast. I can prove my point simply by asking you to find a person who has gone through a spiritual awakening and ask them what kind of life they’ve lived. Ask them how they knew that they could see that waking up was necessary for them. Find out what their path to enlightenment was like. In fact, ask several highly conscious people what kind of life they’ve lived before reaching the point of spiritual and consciousness maturity. If you can’t think of anyone to ask off the top of your head, don’t worry. I will gladly help you out. I can guarantee that the stories would all be unique to the individual, but the theme would be the same. And that theme I’m speaking of is “hardship.”
Hardship & Change
While there may be an exception to the rule, the general truth of the matter is that anyone who has awakened spiritually has most definitely not reached that level without overcoming a great amount of sorrow and strife. The dark night of the soul is often used by spiritual advisors I follow to explain times in a person’s life when they seemed to constantly be put through hell. In my process of reaching enlightenment, I’ve found a lot of helpful information and advice on the website www.lonerwolf.com. On this site, I found the best explanation of the term “Dark night of the soul.” There, it is defined as “The period of utter spiritual desolation, disconnection, and emptiness in which one feels totally separated from the Divine.” It is almost always the case that a person goes through many moments relating to such an idea. When that person possesses the drive to grow due to their darkest, most difficult battles, two opportunities will present themselves. The first one is the chance for the person to come through the struggles to reach the epiphanic realization that they are stronger and more powerful than they ever could have imagined. It’s said that “With great power comes great responsibility,” but with great power also comes a life full of seemingly endless obstacles and tribulations.
The second opportunity is for the person to come through the process with the understanding of how often we humans like to make mountains out of molehills. If this second opportunity is seized entirely, this awakened one will forever have a chance to not only avoid being brought down by insignificant setbacks. They’ll also be able to find positivity and happiness in what would seem to be a not-that-great moment or series of moments. Once you have faced the darkness, walked through it, and kept on shining, you can become unstoppable. Becoming unstoppable and capable of overcoming anything that may come your way relates to the idea of “Don’t sweat the small stuff” because if that is your truth, you hold the power and knowledge necessary to put this cliche into effect. The truth is, even the most in-tune, highly-conscious, spiritually awakened individual can and often will find themselves feeling defeated by something not even that important despite them having gone through many moments of much more difficult, much more intense darkness. But with the simple understanding and intention of making the phrase included in the title of this article, anyone can pull themselves out of a funk that doesn’t justify them being in the funk at all.
Heightened Awareness | Don’t sweat the small stuff
Understanding the importance of not sweating the small stuff can be a game-changer. It can change your entire life in the most positive way. Staying in a state of awareness is always the first step to avoiding being sucked into the adverse effects of everyday life experiences. Because one must be aware of the need to change their mindset and alter their energy and vibration before they can do that. And if you’re asking me, remember those five little words are the second step in achieving that positive, upbeat mindset: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Suppose you can focus your awareness when caught in a situation full of negativity. In that case, you can avoid a lot of pain and heartache. You can avoid a lot of unnecessary drama and confrontations with others.
If a person can only stay aware and in control of their feelings long enough to thwart a negative reaction, they can avoid negativity so much more often than they otherwise do. So, the big question is probably: What constitutes upgrading small stuff to big stuff? I have a bit of advice that can help you decipher, and this is it. When your first instinct is to react to something or to dwell on something that isn’t all that great going on in your life or just coming at you in a single moment, take a deep breath and simply ask yourself, “Will I still care and be affected by this in a year? How about two years?” Unless the answer is a resounding yes, my friend, that stuff is small stuff. Let it go. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Life’s too short; you’ve been through too much and come too far to let small stuff take away your power. Don’t let it. Practice the resulting process built from “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” and watch your outlook, energy, relationships, and your whole, entire life change for the better in no time.
