Is this odd?

[6kgEPS]

I just wondered if this is unusual or odd.

My way of coping with life’s day to day difficulties and stresses is to think that none of this really matters. In 100 years, I’ll be gone and all the day to day stuff will be history. In 3 billion years the planet won’t exist full stop. I don’t know why, but I find this comforting.

I generally have quite a positive outlook on life and people comment that I seem cool in a crisis. I think this is related to the above.

Am I the only person who copes in this way? I’ve been very lucky in that I don’t think I’ve ever faced any massive life crisis, but day to day it gets me through.

I agree. One day you will be dead and it won’t matter.
Just like how fast you’ll be replaced at work, so don’t sweat it.

That's pretty much how I think, in the grand scheme of things...kinda way.

I don't know if it's odd but I do the same thing. It helps give me perspective and remember that none of my problems are as big as they feel.

My mantra is "what's the worst that can happen" made redundant have to sign on. Crash the car... get it repaired and lose some excess money. It's worked so far

OP, I know just what you mean and if you're odd, so am I.

I sometimes look up at the stars (when you can actually see them) and think that we're just so insignificant in the great scheme of things - just specks of dust in the vastness of the universe. Now, I know some people will think this is the opposite of reassuring, but for me it puts my problems into perspective - as you say, in 100 years, will any of it matter?

It's strangely comforting to be so insignificant!

I’m glad it’s not just me!

I sometimes worry it makes me blase or dismissive when it’s something I should take more seriously. Hopefully I strike the right balance between treating things with the respect they deserve and keeping them in perspective!

And me. I always say “in 100 years time we’ll all be dead and none if it’ll matter”

I'm definitely like this, certainly since I hit my fifties. I wonder if it's a realisation that we are only here for a short moment in time so let's not get stressed and go with the flow

Yes. I operate exactly on this, I run my life in a way that gives me the most downtime and joy. I no longer try to be successful or push myself to fit in. I work hard and I’ve achieved lots and could go full time and earn a really high salary but I like being at home on my own, so I stay part-time and it makes me a better parent because I get time alone. Screw the economy or trying to be a ‘somebody’ because other than the three or four people that love me, no one else on this planet gives a shit about me and I’m 40 now, with any luck I’ll be dead before I get to a miserable age so another 30 odd years? I love that I’m free to live the way I want.
See also : don’t follow fashion, don’t attend events unless I actually want to, I do go to concerts and performances (alone cos it’s more enjoyable without pleasing other people) and I’m living life to the max and low key looking forward to the peace and quiet of just disappearing when I’m dead too. It’s great to see life this way, to know we don’t actually matter and therefore should not obsess over trying to meet obligations invented by patriarchal society.

I like watching those youtube vids that show how tiny and insignificant the earth is within the universe. It reminds me that everything that happens on earth is also insignificant - especially the things that happen to me.

I wish more people thought like this. I’m mid-40s and so many of my friends seem to be unhappy and have various problems. It’s a bit tedious sometimes - I wish they’d try and cheer up a bit and remember that it really doesn’t matter in the long run!

I agree. Some people seem to find the idea of being mortal, and of being a tiny, insignificant speck in a vast universe disturbing, but I've always found it very reassuring!

Yes, i've started thinking this way. All the worries about finances and having a successful career, it really means nothing in the end. Helps me not worry as much about it.

I do this. Find it comforting that no matter how bad a job i make of life, a couple of generations after no one will know anything about it. Even if i achieved massive fame, only a small number of obscure historians would have heard of me by then

That’s not the worst that could happen! Lose your job: lose your income, lose your home. Crash the car: die of horrific injuries sustained in the crash, and/or kill someone else.

I'm even odder. I sometimes wander around an old churchyard in a village not far from me. Most of the gravestones are hundreds of years old. I read the names and think about the daily lives of those people and how nothing matters for them anymore. "Sarah Watkins" for example, died 10th January 1732. Her children and everthing she ever cared about are long since gone. Her surroundings and all the familiar sights and sounds are gone too. I doubt anyone ever knew she existed despite the trials, sorrow, joy and laughter of her 53 years on this earth.

This is a good approach BUT the problem with mental health/anxiety/stress/depression is that you can try to take your approach all you like but your thoughts are overpowered by a stronger force which means you may required treatment or to seek methods of lessening the force.

If it was so easy to be care free and positive we would all choose your mindset over mental pain.

This is the only attitude I find that can allow me to begin to cope with the death of someone I love. The idea that my life will be over in the tiniest speck of time when looking at the whole scheme of things, so I must keep going before it's all over.

I think like that about work stuff. I've seen enough people retire, resign and even die and the work carries on as normal. Work never bothers me and I am not able to understand people that worry about work, can't switch off, respond to emails at 1am, etc.

I'm not that bothered about what happens to me, I'll manage; but I do want my kids to have a nice life.

Someone who was blasé wouldn't be weird about it.

Well, OP, you've put me in a very philosophical mood. Thinking about looking up at the stars and feeling insignificant, in a good way, I think the lessons are:

Our lives are not meaningless - but they only have the meaning which we give to them.

We only have the present moment. If we do the right thing (as far as we can judge) in the present, it's our best chance to make the future as good as possible, and to make the past something we won't look back on with regret.

I'm not a cryer at films, but I do feel a lump in my throat when Charlotte sings this in the animation of Charlotte's Web. It sums it up for me!

"How very special are we
For just a moment to be
Part of life's eternal rhyme"

That's the only way to look at it!

I think many people view the world this way, from a slightly existentialist viewpoint?

My DC wear t shirts with cute animals and the slogan "Life is Meaningless and Everything Dies" but we live in Brighton where such insouciance is par for the course.

I agree with your outlook OP and if it helps then keep going. I spent some considerable time this morning just staring at the blue sky and the beautiful shapes the clouds were making. It made me and my little problems feel very small and insignificant, and that's good for me and my overall MH.

I am odd along those lines - feeling very down in the dumps today (nothing the matter - hormonal) and found myself almost wanting a huge crisis to deal with so I could put my current mood into perspective

I'm exactly the same OP. When stuff is tough I just think this won't matter a fuck in three weeks/months/years etc. Pulls all straight back into perspective.

I do this too - I think to myself that virtually everyone currently on the planetwill be gone in 100 years and none of whatever is troubling me presently will matter.