This site was made by someone who, a few years ago, met a suffering that seemed impossible to escape. He still hasn't escaped it. But he has learned to live with it, and most of the time it is something like a friend. That person is me.
These thousand little things are one of the ways we live together.
If this list works for you a little, but sometimes doesn't work at all, it may be that you are not yet playing your part well. As Epictetus says:
“Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the author pleases to make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one. If it is his pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally. For this is your business — to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is another's.” (The Enchiridion, 17)
Think carefully about what he is saying. It has done a great deal for me. I don't know whether it will do the same for you.
A few other books and lines have helped me too. If you're curious:
Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning — written by a great psychiatrist who came through the Nazi camps.
Nietzsche: amor fati — love your fate. Not endure it. Love it. Love your suffering.
Epictetus, The Enchiridion — “If a horse, being elated, should say, I am handsome, it might be endurable. But when you are elated and say, I have a handsome horse, know that you are elated only on the merit of the horse.”
We didn't invent “1000 little things.” Two earlier lists carried this idea long before us, and we tell that story properly on the original lists page.
This site is no substitute for professional help. If you are in a deep crisis, please reach out to someone you trust, or to a professional service where you live.