"Lightness is Positive, Weight Negative"

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My English class is currently reading the book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"

While much of it has to do with a man's countless affairs, the beginning of the book left me thinking about how we choose to live.

One of the sentences that caught my eye was "Lightness is Positive, Weight Negative".

It discusses how everything is opposites, and how Parmenides came up with that answer in the 6th century before Christ.

While the question about whether or not this is true is still argued over, it got me thinking about life.

Everyday we wake up and have a choice.

We can choose to be happy, or we can choose to be upset.

We can choose to smile at the people behind the counter at Starbucks, or we can choose to get frustrated when they take too long getting our order.

We can become angry when we get a red light, or we can use it as a moment to stretch out our arms.

We have a chose in everything we do.

We can choose to let anxiety over power us.  We can choose to worry about every minute detail in our life.

Or we can let it go.

I used to worry about swim meets.  

Last summer, while in Baltimore preparing for a huge swim meet, I was laying in bed one night when suddenly i couldn't breathe.

I literally could not get any air.

I was dry heaving and sweating and felt like i was going to throw up.

I was having my first ever anxiety attack.

I had gotten myself so worked up about everything that I was close to tears.

And you know what?  I did amazing at my meet. 

Want to know something else?  I don't even remember my times from the meet.

I'm extremely prone to anxiety attacks, but lately I have been changing the way I think in order to help deal with them.

My point is, 2 months from now, we won't remember when the barista at Starbucks takes too long.  We won't remember being 5 minutes late for work because we got a red light.  

We won't remember all that little stuff that at the time seemed like such a big deal.

Because it wasn't.

I believe 100% that everything happens for a reason.

I'm finally, after years and years of suffering from worrying and anxiety and getting myself sick over little things, letting the world takes me where it wants to.

If it doesn't happen, it wasn't meant to be.

There are some things I just can't fight.

Lately, every night before bed, I've been laying down with my legs crossed and silently meditating.  Just focusing on the sound of my breathing and how it affects me.  

And it has worked wonders.

Parmenides was right.  

The ability to feel lightness is amazing.  

It's all about letting go and enjoying this life.