What happened to me vs. What happened

This is a powerful distinction which was brought out during a recent call on The Illusion of Time (thank you, Droku!) 

The perception we have of time is one of the greatest sources of unhappiness.  Our perception of time is relative--it is simply our perception.  Time is a dangerous trap for many who find themselves stuck in the past - longing for the way things used to be, or regretting what happened, or caught up in the future - hoping things will miraculously change, procrastinating. 

One of the biggest causes of unhappiness is our view of things that happen in our lives.  We can choose to view an event like an illness or job loss or any change in our plans as something bad, looking for what we've done to deserve this, why we're so damn unlucky in life.

Or we can use one of the LIG principles and accept that life just is.  It is not always easy.  It doesn't always go the way we planned.  It's not a straight line from point a to b.  We can't ever have it locked up.  And then perhaps we can begin to see that events in life are what happens, not what happens to us. Accepting what is is the greatest freedom of all.  It releases us from trying to make things happen or rearrange the world.

It's not what happens to you that matters, it's what you do with what happens that matters.