It’s a strange experience when you have something you believe in totally flipped on its head somehow. It might be religion, sex, politics, etc. Whatever it is, it’s a life-changing moment.
AskReddit users shared the facts that totally changed their perspective on a certain subject.
1. I want one
“There are real life castles that are less expensive to buy than a New York City apartment.”
2. No one’s really paying attention
“Most people are too wrapped up in their own lives and insecurities to focus on your little stumbles. Try to think of other people’s embarrassing moments. It’s actually quite hard to do! And if I do think of something, I don’t dwell on it or give it more than a fleeting thought – it’s usually no big deal. It’s kind of nice to know that no one reeeeeally gives a shit and maybe that one cringey thing I once said isn’t actually that big of a deal.
Related note – when I realized that I would never talk to someone the way I talk to myself, it was a little light bulb moment. Self compassion is a long road.”
3. Not your problem
“Knowing that the way someone treats you is often a reflection of their own problems or issues and quite possibly has nothing to do with you.”
4. Stay calm
“If you have a problem and you completely lose your head over it, you now have two problems.”
5. Think about it
“We judge others on their actions, but ourselves on our intentions.”
6. Huge deal
“During the last ice age, the global average temperature was only 5 degrees lower than it is now. It helped me understand why 2 degrees of global warming would be a pretty big deal.”
7. Reality
“This sounds really obvious but bear with me. Recently I “realized” that reality only exists in one form and that’s in you; your brain, your body, your perspective. So wishing you were someone else, looked like or acted like someone else or had different talents is literally wishing you were born in an alternate universe or something, which people don’t typically do. Everyone accepts that we live on planet earth as humans and not mars as aliens.
So what I need to accept is that the only life there is ever going to be is mine. I won’t ever have the option to like, select to play as a different character or whatever because once I’m gone this is over. Like, from my perspective there was no reality before I was born as myself and the instant that I die the world will cease to exist. I mean sure, other people will live but I will not. Every single about me is literally the only thing that makes sense because if I wasn’t me I wouldn’t be anything at all.”
8. Resist!
“The longest a nicotine craving will last is 180 seconds. That means all I need to do is resist for 3 minutes. My last cigarette was January 25, 2008.”
9. Whiny
“Just because someone has it worse doesn’t mean you can’t complain about your own problems. It’s ok to be a whiny little b*tch sometimes.”
10. C’mon guys
“No girl wants someone who doesn’t take care of themselves.
I went a long time thinking girls were just shallow until I realized I never washed my face or got a personality.”
11. Healthcare
“I found out finances played a big role in this little girl dying of cancer in my hometown. It changed how I felt about healthcare. I had my life repeatedly ruined by the VA and military after I got shot in Afghanistan. It made me vehemently opposed to any form of government healthcare for years. Then I watched this little girl in my hometown die slowly from cancer over social media.
Her family did Gofundme’s and sold T-shirts to raise money for the treatments. She died after a bitter, heart wrenching, struggle and her family was completely ruined emotionally and financially. It really shocked and scarred me. She was a beautiful, innocent, little kid going through an unimaginable horror. I felt deeply for her because of my own medical struggles and when I found out that expenses played a large contributing factor in her death it really broke my mind.
I still have the t-shirt her family sold, it’s hanging up in my closet next to a bunch of my old Marine Corps shirts I’m too fat to fit in anymore. I really think we need universal healthcare. I think this kind of thing explains why the VA has been allowed to be so terrible for so long. If we don’t give a f*ck about little kids with leukemia then how is anyone going to give a f*ck about a grown ass man getting shot in a war?”
12. History lesson
“The Pyramids of Giza were about as old to the ancient Romans as the ancient Romans are to us right now. Really shows how short human history has been.”
13. I hope some do
“Friends don’t last forever.”
14. You’ll get through it
“Time doesn’t stop. That speech I’m about to give in front of my class and I’m sweating balls over, in the next 2 minutes, it’s going to be done with. 2 minutes is two minutes.”
15. A matter of chance
“Shortly after high school I read a book that explained to me that the main reason I was Christian was because I happened to be born into white, rural America in the 1900s, not because Christianity is the golden, objective truth of the universe (as I had been taught to believe). If I had been born in India, for example, I would have most likely lived my life as a Muslim or Hindu, and I would have been taught to believe that Hinduism/Islam is the objective truth. This was a life-changing shift in perspective. Moral/spiritual relativity…”