How Do I Make A Bad Situation Work In My Favor?

“How do you make a bad situation work in your favor?”

When an upsetting or discouraging thing happens, don’t throw up your hands.

Try to think of a compassionate response or action.

This will usually work in your favor.

Here is an example from my life...

This happened at a movie theater.

I went to see the movie Winchester with a friend.

Seated next to us were 2 people, an older lady and a young man.

After the movie started, the lady would turn to her companion every few minutes and speak in a foreign language.

This was terribly distracting.

My initial thought was to turn to her and say “Could you please stop talking”, or “Do you mind moving to some other seats where we won’t be disturbed by your talking”.

But my better self prevailed.

I turned to her and said in a soft and neutral voice, “I am not able to follow the movie.”

She said, ‘Oh, I am so sorry. The person I am with doesn’t know English, so I was translating for him. I will stop.”

This was when I turned the moment into a real growth opportunity.

Moved by her predicament, I turned to her again, gave her a comforting pat on the arm, and said, “It’s okay, go ahead and translate, I think I can manage”.

And I really meant it.

She did not take me up on it.

But by recognizing her need and giving her the go head, she knew I cared about her predicament and that’s all that mattered.

This is how you make a bad situation work in your favor.

You choose a compassionate response, instead of anger, irritation, resentment, self-pity, or doubt.

Keep in mind, sometimes the compassionate response may be no response at all.

Just a cheerful acceptance!

My post, How To Live A Good Life Part 6 gives you an example.

As always, thanks for sharing my Journey to Wisdom, Meaning and a Better Life.  Like you, I am trying to find my way through this complex maze we call life, and I am honored to have you share my journey, as I continue to keep seeking wisdom which is hidden in plain sight.

Thanks for all your comments on my recent posts, and your likes, pins, shares, tweets, votes and contributions…..much appreciated….M ……a Pearl Seeker like you. 

Last but not least, Happy Birthday to all those with May birthdays.  Hope your birthday month has birthed some new and wonderful things in your life. Like new and better solutions to things which are troubling you.

Posts to help you on your journey…

Maybe It’s Time To Stop Making Poor Choices

Maybe It’s Time to Understand What Freedom Is

Maybe It’s Time For Freshness

Certified Fresh

Asma Menon has written a book best described as Certified Fresh

Story is what makes a memoir compelling.

“Angela’s Ashes” is an example.

But I recently read Asma Menon's memoir Moonlight Baby (written as a collection of 13 stories) which has 2 things going for it.

Story plus a unique style.

Make that very unique style.

Certified Fresh is the label I would put on Moonlight Baby.

I found the reading “is this for real” exciting.

Moonlight Baby is an artsy book, like nothing I have read before.

But then that’s not surprising, since it is written by Asma Menon, who is an artist and lives in Cholamandalam, or some other artists colony outside Chennai.

A few samples of her art are featured midway through the book, with accompanying text.

Ms. Menon qualifies as “ordinary" (=non-famous) people”.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if this book puts her on the map.

From the title and the foreword itself, Moonlight Baby promises to be a different read from anything you are used to reading.

“Shards of a word/comment/anecdote/childhood, have been dusted. Mosaics have been added to resurrect a snippet/prose/lyrics/short story. Embellished and polished.”

Who writes like that?

Ms. Menon does apparently.

Why did I not beat her to the punch of this unique style?

Why did I not think about dropping pronouns like she does, saying “Brother instead of “My brother”, Mother instead of ‘My Mother’, “Big Sister” instead of “My sister”.

And the endings.

I loved the endings to each of the 13 stories.

How did she know where to end the story and how to end the story?

How did she get the endings exactly right?

This being her first book.

All this and more kept me glued through all 13 stories of Moonlight Baby from Page 1 to Page 94. And I even enjoyed the pieces of art thrown into the mix.

Read it.

Moonlight Baby!

P.S. Don't pick up this book with the plan to read a few pages and then turn off your bedside lamp.  You will get so absorbed, you will lose track of time and wake up completely sleep-deprived the next morning.