By: Sara Schuhmann, LMFT, LCSW
You are probably familiar with the quote from Forrest Gump that says “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get”(Zemeckis,1994). I have heard this a million times, but when I recently watched that movie, my thoughts went a little deeper and I thought I would share here.
Just as in a box of chocolates, there are many unknowns in life and we don’t always know what will come our way. We have to try different chocolates without knowing exactly what we will get. This is similar to our lives, where we are given certain ‘flavors’ and we then decide what we will do with those. Do we put that chocolate back and try again? Or do we learn to like the flavor we’re currently eating?
The fear of not knowing what will come our way and how we will handle it is unsettling to many. However, when we worry about what will happen in the future, we take away from our day-to-day living. When we’re distracted by things that are out of our control, we miss out on what is happening in the here-and-now. We’re not as able to appreciate the good moments of our lives and we are less present to problem-solve the things we want to change.
In the journey of life, we do not have control over everything, and a key piece is accepting this fact. Accepting that we don’t have total control over what happens in our lives but that we DO have so much control in how we handle these things allows us to realize our power and to embrace the unknown. This, of course, is easier said than done, but this quote can be used as a grounding phrase to remind us that we don’t know what we are going to get in life but that we can handle what comes our way. The important part is being present so that we can create memories and have meaningful experiences with our loved ones.
Take time to appreciate what is currently going well in your life and acknowledge that the future “…is like a box of chocolates”! You might even find a new flavor you like!