9. The Law of Relativity

It’s all relative

Picture this: you wake up to find it oddly bright for so early in the morning. That’s when you realize your iPhone alarm didn’t go off- the cord wasn’t plugged in properly and now the phone is dead. You’re already a half hour late for work. You’re scrambling, but you always make time for your favourite daily ritual that will make everything better: a morning Americano from your local café. But today of course Dwayne the halfwit barista mucked up your order (again) and you ended up with a mocha. Then in your rush to get to work, you get a speeding ticket.

Most people would agree that’s a crappy start to the day. But George, the homeless man sitting outside the café that you probably didn’t even notice, would happily trade places with you in that moment: he doesn’t have a bed to wake up in, an iPhone to charge, a job to be late for, money for coffee, or a car to speed in.

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.

Oprah Winfrey

This law reminds us that experiences on their own are not good or bad; they are neutral. It is our human perception (emotion, thought, judgment) that evaluate experiences and the comparison of them is what creates labels of good and bad. Now I’m not saying we all go out and get our brains removed, but the law is a telling reminder of the power of perception. Use that perception to your benefit. A good or bad situation is not the fundamental truth, it is merely a perception that you are experiencing based on comparing that experience to something else. Remember that the Law of Correspondence says that what we feel internally, we will manifest externally.

Advice:

Viewing a ‘bad’ situation from another perspective may actually help transmute it into gratitude. No matter how bad it is for you, there will always be someone in a worse situation. Instead of feeling like a victim, re-frame it to feel grateful.