Just The Right Amount

I read a statement today that struck a chord with me. It was on Livestrong and had to do with patience but I think it has to do with emotions and life itself. The statement was “having just the right amount of patience” and was in reference to waiting on cures in cancer and treatments and realizing that some patience was called for but how much?

I think that statement  “the right amount of”  can apply to our emotions and even things we do in life. Anger is ok…if you have the right amount of anger but if it is over the top, then it becomes destructive….just like what we are seeing in our world today. Some people have lost control of their emotional monitor and it has taken total control of their lives. Every thing they see and do is in anger and frothing at the mouth in hatred. When it consumes our lives…it is not the right amount.

A lot of the harder emotions, we have to learn when is it too much and when do we need to do something about it. Sadness is a normal emotion but when it consumes our lives, then something is out of balance, just as when we get consumed with grief and do not work through the grief and are still carrying it years later and crying and finding no joy in life. When we lose someone, we will feel the loss the rest of our lives but when we are so caught up in the loss that we can not enjoy life, then something is out of kilter.

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Some emotions and other things in life, when out of control or too much, are like thieves in the night and rob us of the joy that is ours to behold in life.  I think sometimes people take these emotions and nurse them and nurture them because they are afraid to let go of them as if something must be wrong if they do not feel sadness or grief forever.  And so they are afraid to allow joy and happiness in for then that means they did not care enough about the person that passed away or is gone. Some people feel that they are never supposed to feel happiness again after the loss of someone and deny it in their lives and that is simply not true. If you allow grief to work through you, the joyful moments will come again. It is when you stop yourself in the grief process that you stagnate into a pool of nothing but sadness and grief. And knowing what the right amount is I believe comes by whether or not it consumes your life.

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All of life is like a recipe and we need all the right ingredients. Yes, some sadness, some anger, some joy, some pride, some pain, some strength, some money, etc…all the right amount. Sometimes things get out of wack and the recipe is messed up. But, it is still our choice on how we handle it. If we feel too much sadness all the time, then we find out why and we do something about it. If grief has consumed our lives and we are still crying years later, then we make ourselves go back and work through the grief. If we are consumed with anger, then we figure out why and make ourselves use anger to accomplish something not as a run away train that demolishes and damages all around us.I have found that even love needs to be just the right amount. If we love someone so much that we sacrifice ourselves and lose ourselves than it is not the right amount. Love should include ourselves and when we make someone our sole life, we will be disappointed because we expect the same love in return and that does not always happen. People love in different ways.  I have heard people say this below and that is a sign that the loving the person is doing is too much on one person and not enough on everyone and themselves.  It needs to be the right recipe.

Pride has to come in the right amount too. Too much pride and we will fall. But we must have what I call self pride…pride in yourself enough to be honest, moral and ethical. Self pride is in handling oneself with respect and not doing things that make yourself look bad. But it too must be just the right amount.

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Just the right amount….how is your life going?  Is anything taking over your life until the happiness has seemed to disappear?  Is anger, sadness, etc dominating your life?  We all have those times where we find ourselves off course, but what is important is what we do to get back on course.