I learned English at home with private tutors and my best course was grammar because it had logic and helped me understand the structure of the foreign language. I still remember the Conditionals known as the if clauses.
Conditional sentences are used to speculate what will happen, would happen or could have happened… two clauses in a sentence attached and closely related. The one can not exist without the other. The action in the main clause can only take place if a certain condition is fulfilled. Each type expresses a different degree of probability that a situation will occur or would have occurred under certain circumstances. Always related to one another.
-If I have money, I will be happy.
-If you love me, I will love you.
Now or in the future, the condition “if ” gives the result.
-If I had money, I would be happy. If he loved me, I would love him too.
This conditional refers to a present unreal situation or to a future that I believe is more unlikely to happen. But still possible under conditions.
-If I had won the lottery, I would have been happier.
This is the third type that refers to the past where things did not work out as I wished for. The situation did not happen. I did not win the lottery and happiness never paid a visit. I stayed tuned to the hypothetical situations and all the “if clauses” thinking about the consequences. There is only one conditional you should get your PhD on and that is the so called Zero conditional.
Zero conditional express general truths and that is why we use in both clauses simple present tense and not simple future tense.
For example: if you put your hand in the fire you feel pain.
If I drink coffee at night, I do not sleep well. The result comes through observation and it is real for me, it has no possibilities or imagination.
And now having said that, does it ring a bell to you? How many ifs do you have in life? Is your whole life an IF?
Once I was an expert on ifs and that is why I am writing this to you today. Ifs are nice, they make us daydream and escape from real life and ease our pain. If make us willing to keep walking, willing to go on, but be careful not to get paralyzed in the if syndrome. Make the clause but jump out of your comfort zone and act. The time is now. Start focusing on what you have now and leave regrets and possibilities drift away. Remain to the Zero conditional and start acting. Check the choices, think of the possibilities, use useful thinking, do not focus on the third conditional but only to learn from what went wrong leaving the worries, regrets and frustration on the doormat and start replacing the ifs with what if.
But again without thinking of the worse case scenario but through a positive point of view.
What if I started loving myself, what if I tried a new job, what if I found a way to improve my relationships, what if I ended up loving my house, my life, my dog?
Yes, things sometimes do not turn out as expected, yes life can be an ordeal, yes danger is right around the corner but do not forget one thing! Its through magic that we live, it’s through Grace that we are all alive and that is the force that protects us, enhances our growth, keeps us alive and supports us through hardships.
Deepen your awareness, watch your ifs, replace them with positive what ifs and let the force grow and show you the way because life is wise when we allow her to be our spiritual partner on our journey to our authentic being. We do not need conditions to live and see the pleasures in the simplest of the experiences.