We use tonnes of metaphors to try and make sense of life and to humour our fortunes, misfortunes, luck and bad luck. It is a typical British tendency to throw in a saying to round off our angry rant or our elated excitement. Believe me, I say “every cloud has a silver lining” daily, sometimes it doesn’t match the actual occurrence I’m referencing it to. Now, I cannot quite declare that I have created this metaphor, but over the past few years, I have started to “sieve the lumps out of my life.” When I talk about “lumps,” I don’t mean lumps of sugar, lumps of butter or lumps of gold. The lumps in this blog, are the lumps in your life; the leaches of negativity. Life, like a delicious gravy, has a smooth consistency. But with every smooth, comes the rough, or in this case lumps. Imagine yourself as a pie and chips sitting casually on your plate. The gravy – we allow- that drips onto you are the things that make you happy and bring positivity. These people or aspects contribute to your life with support, excitement and joy. However, sometimes we allow the gravy lumps to make their way onto our plate. These lumps being the people and things in life that do not provide a positive contribution. They bring anxiety, self-depreciation and a whole load of negativity. If you are committed to a post-work activity that you no longer enjoy, quit. If you constantly must make an overwhelming effort with people who show no signs of interest in you, cut them out. If you feel as though you are inadequate to certain people, block their judgement out. If you are unhappy with your daily routine, change it. We often hold onto things out of normality and fear, instead of putting ourselves first occasionally. Imagine your dinner being scattered in lumpy gravy. Has this repulsed you? Yes.
So why do we continue to allow the lumps in our lives?
We are all guilty for it and for some it is harder than others to cut ties with routines or people. Your time on this earth is a dainty little speck in the grand scheme of the world’s existence and path. Don’t let things, people and opinions make this short time less colourful than it should be by overshadowing what YOU want and what is best for YOU. Get that old sieve out and part the good in your life from the bad.