is your life that bad?

if you interested to contribute, by translating this article to other language, especially to bahasa and simple english, feel free to translate it and send it to salehbageer@gmail.com. and to show my gratefulness, i will attribute it to you.

It is normal for us to feel anxious, disappointed, grieve, and any other negative feelings, especially during low levels of our life. Sometimes, we feel like a shit, complaining our lives, why we experience this damn period. Everyone may undergo these situation, anyhow she is trying to avoid it, regardless, myself.

Well, as many other people, my life not always good. I think, I have so many bad period during my life. during one of that bad periods of my life, I was awfully stressed. And at some point I started to complaining to god. Yet, then, a tickling question appear in my head. Is your life that bad? 

Well, at first it seems like, my life is so bad, that I have seen other people who enjoy friendship, and respected by others. Me in the other side, was bullied by other kids, I barely had no friend at that time. 

I examine my self. I inspect my whole body. I sense my forehead. I brushed it with my palm. it's felt warm. yes, it's felt warm. i was living. i don't realize until that point  that a live is really a great gift from god. one after another gifts, discovered by me. and, oh my god, i don't realize there are so many other endowment that i enjoy, beside other pains. we oftenly overlook these boons. is your life that bad?

The Hidden Gifts

first, if you read this article, i assume that you are a living human. some ghost who might be reading my article, don't disappointed, but you are not included in this one, sorry. yes, you are living.  according to unicef, 25 of 1000 child under five die, in indonesia. that's about 2,5%. well, yes 2,5% might be insignificant number, but, assuming you who read this article above 5 all, you still luck enough to be member of the 97,5% lucky group. but this number actually has been declining significantly. in 1955, infant under five death rate is 300 of 1000. it's about 30%. holy shit, it's a huge rate! . is your life that bad?

let's move to next gift. we live in modernised era. 

second, yes, we lived in a modernised era. many calamities has been declining so hard in the last few decades. the infant death rate, and the number of absolute poverty, is two of many notable instances. beside, true, that some new problem arise in the modern era, such as personal happiness rate, and psychological problem, loneliness, etc. but especially in the area of biological disasters, these areas has been showing significant decrease. 

If you had lived in the middle age, when you get small tissue trauma in your body, you will quickly amputated. even small trauma in that era means near to death. many death sentence in the middle age now has been a small disaster. before the invention of antibiotics, and before people know that bacteria exist, they don't know the cause of many diseases. 

now, we know that many diseases, like ganggrene, and diarrhea is caused by a microscopic organism called bacteria. and we can easily recuperate using some pills, all the while the premodern people will unanimously accept it as part of life, and a death sentence, likely. is your life that bad?

third, if you read this that's mean you has an access to the internet. not everyone has this gift. this mean you has access to the world, that's really a huge gift. according to statista.com only 59% of the population have access to the internet. or about 4.57 billion people. that's mean only about 6 out of 10 people have access to the internet. is your life that bad?

fourth, if you are or was going to school, you are lucky. look, according to unicef, 1 out of 5 children and adolescents today, are excluded of school. school might be a challenging, boring, hard, or anything else experience, but this period is when you develop your emotional and cognitive abilities. moreover, school open a wide bridge to abundance of opportunities. there are a wide inequality of job opportunities among them who have gone to school and who haven't. is your life that bad?

as far you read my article, now, do you experience some sort of disability? if you don't experience any sort of disability, praise to god. according to unicef 15% of the population experience some sort of disability. that's approximately 1 billion people. about 110 to 190 millions or 1 of 70 people experience significant disabilities. today's world still has a lot areas to improve, the inequality among human population is one of the most imperative one. 

nowadays, in the most places, by having disability means it is almost impossible to get a good job, or even any job at all. the fact that disabled people are inclined to have higher live cost, worsen the condition. is your life that bad?

and there are a thousand more wellness we have, and we don't notice the most of it, it's not caused other than we have been used with those wellness so much, so that we forget it. they are so much so that we can't discuss all of them here.

The Conclusion

so, if you think your life is that bad, think again. you must be grateful with who you are, that's the only key to have a happy life. oftenly, we forget how much endowment god's gave us. just as Prophet Muhammad M.P.U.H said 14 centuries ago,

Look at those who are beneath you and do not look at those who are above you, for it is more suitable that you should not consider as less the blessing of Allah.” [Bukharee 6490, abridged & in Muslim (2963) in its completion.]

This saying, give us the perfect picture about what we should do. and yeah, sometimes we should lessen our expectation. the fact why it is difficult for us to be grateful and happy is, when our well-being raised, the paradox is our expectation mounts too. 

it is a paradox that cause us never happy. our expectation never been satisfied. but it's not always like this. we can choose to be grateful, and to be satisfied with what we have today. countless ancient poets, philosophers and writers, said that restrain our expectation and accept our condition as it is, is the way to happiness. 

and suprisingly, the contemporary psychological papers concerning about happiness agree with, and bolster the ancient answer. we will discuss more about happiness in the later article. last but not least, if you dissatisfied with your life, try to lessen your expectation, and accept yourself as you are, this is the only key to happiness. is your life that bad?