What can you do when life is a burden? When everything is difficult and burdensome? When one problem follows another and piles up? And, above all, when there’s no hope of things ever getting better? Here are 3 tips for living life as if it were a gift instead of a burden.

1 – We’ve learned to see life as a burden

Indeed, we’ve learned to focus on what’s going wrong.

All we have to do is look at the news: it’s all about disasters and rambling on about them.

It’s so anxiety-provoking. In fact, I’ve stopped reading and watching newspapers for several years now, and I’m much better off for it.

Then we learned to focus on our problems and mistakes.

In fact, we’ve been led to believe a lie: if we do things right, if we organize ourselves well, then everything will go according to plan.

Wrong!

Nothing ever goes according to plan. Why can’t they?

Because life always throws in its two cents, whether in the form of good surprises or not-so-good ones.

That’s why we think life is a burden, because we have great difficulty accepting life’s surprises. We’re constantly in control, and when things don’t go according to plan, we grumble, get angry or sad.

What if we stopped?

2 – We could have learned that life is a gift

Indeed, instead of learning to focus on what’s wrong, we could have learned to see what’s right, to see the magic of everything around us.

What’s more, instead of constantly telling us about everything that’s wrong with the world. And yet, we could be talking about what’s going right, about all those gestures of love and kindness, about births, about life’s beautiful surprises…

In fact, when we believe that life is a burden, it’s because we don’t look at it with wonder.

So, yes, there are probably problems in your life. Who doesn’t?

But we could have learned that life isn’t about not having problems. Life is everything around it.

In fact, it’s because we let our problems take up all the space that we can no longer see the good and the beautiful in our lives.

Fortunately, it’s up to you to change things.

A few years ago, I was unhappy. So I decided to change things. To do that, I decided to learn how to be happy.

And my life hasn’t fundamentally changed since then. I still have problems. In other words, my life isn’t perfect, yet I’m happy.

So, how can this be?

It’s because I’ve decided and I’ve learned how to see life as a gift and not as a burden.

3 – How do you go from life is a burden to life is a gift?

So, seeing life as a gift and not a burden is both very simple and not so simple.

Indeed, to see life as a gift, all we need to do is change the way we look at our lives and even life in general. In other words, instead of focusing on what’s wrong, we learn to focus on what’s right.

To do this, the actions and habits we need to put in place are very simple.

But it requires taking action, every day.

Happiness doesn’t fall from the sky, or too rarely, so we need to be disciplined and put in place the right habits to bring happiness, joy and even magic into our lives.

Here’s a short list of simple things you can do:

Practice gratitude morning, noon and night.
Stop looking at newspapers, read, write, paint, cook, do sport instead.
Meditate once a day on values such as love, compassion and kindness.
Do acts of love for family and friends: see them more often, give them little gifts, give them hugs…
Do good to those around you: smile at people more often, be polite, listen to them…
Learn to accept, let go and remain hopeful.
Then choose one or more of these actions and make them HABITS.

Yes, every day, take care to practice gratitude and/or do good around you.

Or start a coaching program with me to learn how to be happy, and make this learning a habit of life!

Because, all too often, life becomes a burden, because we forget to see what’s going well and fall back into our habit of focusing on the negative.

In other words, don’t forget to be happy. So base your happiness, your joie de vivre, on daily habits. You can learn to do it. I’ve learned to do it. You can too.

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover Practicing positive thinking: 3 advice to returning to the positive
Discover Accepting life as it is: 4 steps to greater serenity

I recommend this inspiring book:

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Set during the Second World War, The Nightingale weaves a poignant tale of resilience and the burdens of life. The novel explores the challenges faced by two sisters in war-torn France, and examines the burdens of sacrifice, loss and endurance of the human spirit. Through its powerful narrative, the book resonates with the theme of life’s burdens, offering a reflection on the strength found in the midst of adversity and the enduring human capacity for hope and love.

Wow…..this book. I’ve never had the opportunity to cry while reading a book, yet that’s what happened. The ending cracked me up.
The writing was so good and everything was so detailed that you could feel the pain and suffering of everything they were going through.
Isabelle is an absolute boss and I loved her as a character. She has so much willpower and determination. I was very sad to read how things ended for her, but they were so perfect at the same time. Even in times of war, she managed to find love and peace.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself