Lost Property: When Life Gives You Big Setbacks

Sometimes life sends big setbacks in your direction. Life is not always bright and colorful, but you must continue to confront it with your whole self.

Sometimes thoughts like “why me?” and “I do not deserve this!” emerge. But earning it has nothing to do with it. The things that afflict you are surrounded by darkness. But it is in your hands to see the light in all this obscurity.

One of the most difficult experiences anyone can go through is dementia. It is a disease that acts directly on your memory or on the people you love the most. When you have it, you lose many of your memories. You also forget who the people are. But is there any other way to look at it?

Take a look at this short video on dementia.

There is a great lesson in all this. It is one you can even use in your daily life. When life strikes you with heavy setbacks and you feel like you have lost everything, you may feel the need to strike back. Or you can stress out actions that can reverse the situation or compensate for it as quickly as possible. But you forget to be patient.

We are generally bad at dealing with uncertainty. In fact, a lack of knowledge about the future can give rise to a lot of anxiety. This will make you feel like you are hanging over the edge of an abyss without a clear bottom. This abyss has a lot to do with the feeling of loss of control that unexpected, negative events can bring.

Anxiety is something that rarely helps you. The blows will come from nowhere and you can do nothing to avoid them. You can definitely not control them.

So what should you do? You have to have  patience and perseverance. You need to stop expecting you to solve every problem overnight and start focusing on the small steps to make things better. Take these steps with a lot of effort and above all a good portion of courage.

So withstanding the setbacks of life with patience does not mean that you have lost hope. It just means you will use love and live with this uncertainty of not knowing what will happen tomorrow. You know what will happen today, because here and now you are in control.

Another lesson is to focus on the little things,  even if they seem unimportant. This is because you can often find your own happiness in them. But sometimes the years have to roll on so that you reach the same age as the people in the short film Lost Property below before you realize it.

We always chase big dreams, try to collect things and wish for innumerable riches. But the  things that are really important are in the little things – the ones you can barely see. When someone suffers from dementia, the big dreams are shattered. Collecting things is no longer logical. What do you have left? Therein lies the magic.

It often seems as if life has to hit you hard in order for you to open your eyes and really notice all the things you do not value.  The strange thing is that they have always been within reach. They were not things you had to work hard to get. They were right there, and you just had to appreciate them! But you did not do it, because your attention was elsewhere.

Even if the blows your life strikes you with are heavy and cause suffering, you should not ignore a positive aspect of them: they help you open your eyes. We all live with a constant autopilot that leads us to nothing but setbacks and unexpected problems.

Now is the time to stop waiting for things to happen. That way, you can begin to appreciate the little things, the life you have. You can begin to cultivate the patience to tackle anything that did not go the way you wanted.

These are valuable lessons. Love, appreciation of the little things and a small change of perspective can be the start of a fantastic journey together with the person you love the most. Even if his reality is not in line with yours.