As you are well aware, life is tough and it can be a major grind and it can beat you down.
BUT, it’s important that we all try to focus on the positives in life, especially in these very uncertain times we’re living in. And we can take a lot of inspiration from other people out there.
So let’s see what these AskReddit users had to say about why they love their lives.
1. Fulfillment.
“Don’t seek happiness. Seek fulfillment, and the happiness will come.
Having a job or hobby (or otherwise) that centers around helping people will help.
If you believe the purpose of life is to help others, it’s easy to enjoy life.”
2. Changed everything.
“Two actions that changed everything:
Healing my childhood trauma over the course of 5 years
Letting go of perfectionism
They go hand in hand, but my god, these two actions saved my life.”
3. Recovering.
“I fell from a balcony of first floor to the ground.
Got a brain injury and doctor said there was internal bleeding. Survived but got OCD, ADHD, anxiety, depression and low emotional stability but I am recovering and I’m doing fine.
I love my life.”
4. FUN.
“Married my high school sweetheart 8 years ago. We went to junior prom together, all of college, have two kids, just bought a house, etc.
We have challenges and sh*tty days but it’s softened by the fact that we’re together.
Lots of fun.”
5. Learning how to by happy
“I remember when I learned how to be happy.
I was a resident, working 80 hours a week at a horrible NYC hospital. I was burnt out and depressed. I wanted to escape. I felt sorry for myself. I felt like somehow, I deserved better. That’s when it hit me. . . Deserved. It’s such a strange concept.
And if you believe that you somehow deserve something “better” than you have, it will rob you of your joy. How about the janitors cleaning the rooms each day… what do they deserve? Some kid in a town in Bangladesh … what does she deserve?
None of us really deserve any more than anyone else. And yet I look at my life and realize how enviable it would be to so many, and I feel almost ashamed for having felt like I deserved something more. And in that moment, I learned how to be happy.”
6. Good Fortune
“I’ve lived an easy life so far.
We weren’t filthy rich, but I was never missing anything I truly needed. I’ve been smart about my choices, but also extremely lucky. I’m currently living with the love of my life, have healthy relationships with friends and family, working a low-stress job I enjoy that gives me enough spending money for my wants (it’s also lucky I don’t want much.)
We’re taking it one day at a time. Nothing special, but it works for us. We enjoy so much freedom. It’s not perfect. I’m not fully healthy, I’ve seen tragedy, I’ve had extremely rough times, I’m probably battling undiagnosed mental health conditions, and there are things I wish for that I don’t have.
But I am all too aware of my good fortune, it truly overwhelms me sometimes, and every single day I thank the universe for allowing me to live this life.”
7. Teaching rocks!
“I’m a high school teacher and I absolutely LOVE my job.
I never really thought it would be something I’d do. Usually I don’t like kids and only went into it initially because I got a relatively useless arts degree. Now that I’m there I know it’s what I was meant to do. I may not like children but I love my teenage students like they’re my babies. For the most part my day is endless fun.
I also bought a little cottage really close to work. It has a beautiful garden and I just live there with my dogs. I go home throughout the day (during free periods and at lunch and interval) to spend time with my dogs, work in my garden and get all my chores done.
Then all of my evenings and weekends are free to just do what I want. I live so close I can leave work at 3 and be home by 3.05. It really is a completely blissful life.”
8. Living simply.
“I had a good family growing up. I married a good man. We have three healthy babies.
We don’t have a lot of money, but we live simply so it works for us. Its kind of unfair how some people get all the luck and some people get all the hardships.”
9. Wouldn’t trade it.
“I’m a 29 year old woman from the US. I have a loving husband who I agree with 95% of the time.
We share a hobby with a bunch of people who are family or close like family. We both have stable jobs, own our own home, and have a baby on the way. Our life has its ups and downs, good days and bad. Sometimes we struggle, and sometimes we soar.
But right now, amongst all the chaos and uncertainty, I’m somehow the happiest I’ve ever been. I don’t know if it’s a mindset or what, but I wouldn’t trade what our life now is for anything.”
10. Optimistic.
“I have always been an optimistic person (to a fault) but I have lived through a lot of strife and bullsh*t, addict parents, abandonment, homelessness, poverty, depression, lots of death in the immediate family and others.
I don’t wear any of that on my sleeve but I encourage people who have been through it to be open about it. Grieve it. Grieve that you can’t get that time back but know that you have every moment in front of you to love it.
On the cusp of 30 years old, I am in the best physical and mental and emotional shape I have ever been in, have an amazing family of people I chose who I can count on, and have had so many Hallmark movie moments where you sit on the sunset/sunrise on the horizon and think ‘wow, this is it.
So many people won’t have this moment but I do.’ and I remind myself to be grateful for that sh*t every single day and trust that there will be more.
Some days you have to fight for that feeling and it comes in a lot of ways. You have to fight for other people sometimes. You have to carry other folks sometimes who don’t have the strength left in them, but you find it in yourself to be grateful that you can. That you are capable. I am friends with people now who I looked up to when I was growing up.
I have gone to see the world and have fallen in love with my own life and art and imagination over and over. I wouldn’t trade my time in this big universe for anything. I could only hope for another chance to come back and experience it again when I’m gone.”
11. A new chapter.
“I fled from an abusive marriage 10+ yrs ago, and had to sacrifice everything that was ever important to me, in order to have freedom. I went into hiding on the other side of the country, and started over again from scratch, with only $11 to my name.
Despite being homeless, jobless, and penniless, I had a lot of support from my family back home, and was able to get a new job quickly. It took until 2016 for me to realize that I had Complex PTSD from being psychologically abused for so many years. I started going to see a trauma therapist as soon as I had health insurance again.
Finally when I reached my lowest point, I told my counselor I needed more help than talking with her every week, and she referred me to someone who could help with medication management for my symptoms.
Within a week of starting medication, my entire life changed. I no longer had panic attacks, flashbacks, or nightmares. I no longer felt that I needed to avoid things that would trigger me. I was no longer afraid of going to the courthouse to legally change my name, to shake off my abuser’s surname for good.
This *sshole made me quit playing music, when I had been the kind of person who would play piano for hours – I used to be a piano teacher for crying out loud. The violence at home was so scary that I could no longer find refuge in songwriting.
Even with therapy, I thought I might never be able to sit in front of a keyboard again. I thought I had lost that forever. I was so ashamed of not being able to play, and there were so many people I met over the last ~20yrs who didn’t even know I was a musical type of person.
I met a wonderful guy just before the covid lockdown, and he is better for me than anyone I’ve ever met. He isn’t only a boyfriend – he is my partner. He has been so understanding and supportive of where I’ve been, and where I am now.
When quarantine started earlier this year, I started going stir crazy after a couple of weeks. I finally picked up the only musical thing I had – Garageband. I wrote a song! And then another. A couple of months later, I got some professional music production gear, and by now, I’ve created enough new material that I could release my very first album. I’m very excited for it!
I am so, so thankful that I gave myself another chance. I am happier than I’ve ever been, and it’s because I refuse to settle for anything less than what is in my best interests – it requires a lot of discipline, but it’s worth it. I absolutely love my life, and the person I have become.”
12. Some good advice.
“Step 1. Be born to parents who value literacy specifically and education generally (also helps to be male, white, and rich; I had the first two, but was raised in the bottom tax bracket in the USA).
Step 2. Avoid crime as an adolescent – this will slow you down. (I narrowly avoided this.)
Step 3. Get whatever education you enjoy. (I took six years to finish my undergrad, two years for the first MA several years later, and now I’m leisurely finishing a second MA.)
Step 4. Get a job you don’t hate that pays for your lifestyle.
Step 5. Invest as much as you can in your spouse if you want a spouse. If you don’t want a spouse, don’t have one. (I have a wife – she’s great.)
Step 6. Invest as much as you can in your kids if you want kids. If you don’t want kids, don’t have kids. (I have zero children.)
Step 7. Enjoy your free time (I raise meat animals, garden, work out a tiny bit and read books about medieval Europe) and spend time with people you like (this may or may not include your relatives).
It’s worked out for me so far. Ask me in thirty years when I retire.”
13. Wise beyond your years.
“I’m only 19, so I’m not gonna dish out any infinite wisdom, but I do genuinely love my life. There are two reasons: my mom and my sister.
I’m 5 years older than my sister, and I first met her the afternoon of the day she was born. I remember looking at her and thinking to myself, “that wrinkled ball of skin is the most important person in my life.”
My mom was a lawyer and she spent a lot of time traveling as far back as I can remember, and even when she wasn’t traveling she came home late. Add that to the fact that once my sister turned five my dad started drifting away from us, and starting in middle school I considered myself to be the one raising my sister.
My parents always said that your relationship with your sibling is the longest one in your entire life, and the most important. I couldn’t agree more.
My mom traveled a lot, but I always knew she loved us. The reason we still get along so well is that she was always honest with me, and the only thing she expected was for me to be honest in return.
When I was a teenager, she didn’t treat me like a kid, or like my emotions were worth less just because hormones were making everything seem terrible. She just comforted me and helped me get through it. I don’t ever think I’ll be able to thank her enough for that.
Find the people you love, the people you respect, the people who respect you, and hold on tight. With people like those by your side you can get through anything.”
Now we want to hear from you!
In the comments, tell us what you love about your life.
Please and thank you!
