I've noticed that when I'm feeling a little discouraged, I get busy trying to organize small unimportant areas of my life. This gives me the delusion of improving my situation. It distracts me from my worries but wastes a lot of time and effort. The Serenity Prayer helps me stop this futile compulsion. It lets me step back for a moment to see what I can control and what I just have to live with. Yesterday I needed this prayer. I say it each morning when I wake up but after a while it becomes a thoughtless routine. When this happens I make an effort to really pay attention to its meaning. Here are some notes I found on wikipedia: I have no idea who he was but from the 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar Shantideva of Nalanda University: If there’s a remedy when trouble strikes, What reason is there for dejection? And if there is no help for it, What use is there in being glum? Again, I'm not sure who this was. The philosopher W.W
1 hour ago
