A bit more of my slightly different perception of things.
People, when excited about a particular thing, have a tendency to emphatically state something to the effect of, it changed my life! Or it was truly a life altering experience. They declare such a thing loudly and boldly, often pausing between each word and also placing extra emphasis on each word to show just how serious they are about what it is that they are saying.
While I appreciate the severity of their declaration and share in the joy that something that happened to them had a profound effect on their life, I also kinda giggle somewhat inside at how ridiculous it sounds to me whenever someone says anything like that.
Why? Because everything that happens to you alters your life in some way. There are no non-life altering events.
Spilling coffee on your shirt alters your life. So does putting clothing on, going to work, disciplining your children, stopping at a red light or running it, doing homework, walking the dog, finishing up a puzzle, learning something new. Choosing to get up in the morning alters your life. Every single one of these things has some impact on your life even if it is only miniscule, even if it only provides background for other things.
Some, very few things, actually take our life in a completely new direction. They blaze a path to doorways that we never even knew existed. This is what most people mean when they are talking about something that changed their life. They have the passion correct. They just fail to properly articulate what it is that they actually mean.
And the second point for today I've been meaning to mention for awhile. I have a habit that I have formed over the past few years that has in many cases assisted me in preventing the tendency to overreact to certain stimuli. It has to do with creating a duality within your mind. When something happens, it doesn't matter what it is, create an image in your head of you being both present while the event happens and not present, standing outside the circumstance observing the event happening to and around the "other" you.
This way you can fully experience being in the moment while at the same time having a calm peaceful center from which to find the best solution to a given problem. Being able to have both an objective and a subjective point of view in virtually any circumstance allows for a great deal of emotional flare-up prevention. It also allows one to be more fair and reasonable under a broad range of circumstances.
There are times where others will not understand your apparently detached attitude, especially if they were ramping up for a fight, but I know from personal experience it is a much better option than simply reacting to everything that happens.
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