What’s the worst thing you could do to hurt yourself? I think one of the answers might be to feel sorry for yourself.
I read this in an autobiography from a woman who left a comfortable East Coast lifestyle to become a frontierswoman. This meant no running water, no clean floors, no society or people within any reasonable distance, and many other missing conveniences we take for granted.
She stated in her book that the worst thing she could possibly do through all her many (and there were many) difficulties was to start to feel sorry for herself. She said she thought that was one of the worst things a person could do.
I thought about that, and I think I agree. Once you start to feel sorry for yourself it’s completely downhill from there. A mole hole becomes a mountain. Inconveniences become distressing moments. The cliché that is all too true: life is what you make of it.
This woman who lived such a hard life came from a great position of power to speak on feeling sorry for oneself. Of all the people I’ve read about, she’s near the top of the list of someone that had good reason to complain. And yet, her life would have likely been much more difficult had she succumbed to her own self-pity.
These are my other favorite quotes from this book:
“I have always thought that fear is our greatest sin. It shows such a lack of faith.”
“I was worn out, and once more took to feeling sorry for myself… I stuck to my rule of not whining.”
“I have often noticed that it is the little things that trouble a woman, while only the big ones trouble a man.”
“When you have lived without money as much as I had, it loses a great deal of its power to hurt you.”
“I led a hard life. Perhaps-but I don’t think an easy one is ever half so full.”
No Coincidences 