By Cheryl Mattox Berry
Despite your best efforts, sometimes you get a case of the blues. It happens when things aren’t going your way, people let you down or you feel that no matter how hard you try nothing ever changes.
Don’t despair; you’re not alone. No one is happy all the time. The key is to figure out a way to beat the blues. Start by repeating one of my favorites, force fed to me by my mother when I was a teen:
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.
– Reinhold Niebuhr
After that, get to work on what I call The Plan. Get a notebook and write down what is bothering you. Next, write what you think should be done to fix the problem. Then, answer this question: Can I resolve this? If the answer is yes, then write down how you plan to do it and get busy.
If it’s out of your control, identify the person(s) who can correct the situation. Go to them for help. If you don’t get relief from the first person, go to the next one. Keep going until you’ve exhausted every name on the list. If there’s no one who can correct it, accept the fact that it can’t be resolved and move on. You’ve done all you can, and it’s time to let go.
The Plan helped me stay sane in high school. My house was unbearable at times because of a mean, domineering stepfather. I had no place else to go, so in the quiet of my bedroom, I wrote down how I would escape. The answer: going away to college. Far, far away, never to return. (Of course, I do go back for visits.)
I wrote down the schools I wanted to attend and their admission requirements. I took all college admissions tests offered at the time. I enlisted the aid of my guidance counselor who made it her mission to get a small group of students into the college of our choice. Most importantly, I stayed focused. I shut out the voices of those who didn’t want me to go away, including a possessive boyfriend who was pressuring me to stay home and get married.
Whenever I felt hopeless, I looked at The Plan. It reminded me that all was not lost. I worked The Plan, and it worked for me. It can do the same for you.