A long, long time ago, when I was living back home with Mum & Dad, I had the daily displeasure of riding the rush hour tube into work.

The morning trains were so busy that I used a little trick straight from the “life advice” handbook of Dad.  

Namely:  

I'd jump on a train on the opposite platform and travel away from the office until the throng of commuters eased enough for me to hop off the train, switch platform, board a train heading the other way, and grab a seat.

Yes, it took an extra 10 or 15 minutes.

But it worked like a charm.

I became one of those smug, annoying people gazing at everyone else jostling for a seat, handrail or slither of space as men & women in suits sweltered like sardines in a can, sweat patches growing increasingly visible on their brow or light blue shirts and in some cases drops of sweat trickling down their noses onto the bag or shoe of the unsuspecting commuter wedged right next to them.

This is why I did my best to grab a seat.

So am I suggesting everyone travel backwards to travel forwards?  Is this what the subject line refers to?

Not on your nelly.

Instead, take a look at this extract I found in a book called The Things You Can Only See When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim:

I squeeze myself into the subway car.  People are crowded all around me. 

I can either get annoyed, or think it’s fun that I don’t have to grab a handrail. 

People react differently to the same situation. 

If we look more closely, we see it’s not the situation that is troubling us, but our perspective on it.

That last line is worth re-reading.

If two commuters can experience the same train journey in two completely different ways, it can’t be the train journey which is causing their experience. 

If it was, the commuters would be having an identical experience.

But someone riding the tube thinking about how hot, sweaty & uncomfortable they are might feel annoyed.

Someone else riding the tube while concentrating on people-watching might be having fun. 

And someone else riding the tube thinking about a big meeting they have later might be nervous or excited and have no tube-related feelings at all. 

When you put this all together, here’s the implication:

Our thoughts cause our experience. Not the situation or circumstance we’re in.

To my mind, this is really good news.

When we notice we’re feeling frustrated or annoyed, it’s a clue we might be having a frustrating or annoying thought.  

So we don't need to change anything about our situation to try to cheer ourselves up if we don’t want to.

We can wait for our thoughts and feelings to change instead. 

And they will.  

Just like tube trains, there'll be another thought along in a minute.

That’s all for now. 

 - Tom