Sometimes it's not always easy to see the bright side of things. Especially when most of us have endured rather a lot in the past few years - a global pandemic, a Cost of Living Crisis, a particularly wet British summer 2023 etc etc but TikTok's latest ‘burnt toast theory’ is trying to change that.
For anyone who feels as if they've been dealt a bad hand of late, it's often easy to believe you're destined to be miserable or even cursed when you're treated to more bad luck - however, this theory might actually help.
The burnt toast theory is about embracing the bad things that happen because there's usually a good reason for it. In a post that's been liked by almost 100,000 users, TikToker Ingrid shared the meaning behind it.
Ingrid says in her viral post: “I recently learned about the burnt toast theory and it's really been helping me accept things that are out of my control.”
It's so simple.
Explaining the concept, she continued: 'Burnt toast theory is the idea that if you burn your toast before work and it adds five to 10 minutes to your trip, it's actually saving you from something catastrophic."
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“Maybe saving you from a car accident. Maybe saving me from someone who you don't want to run into. But this is the idea that inconveniences in our lives, or when something releases us in the universe, it's either saving us from something more detrimental or pushing us in the direction that we need to go in.”
The TikToker added: "I've often struggled with accepting things that are out of my control and I've struggled with being an anxious person at times.
“But adopting this and really thinking about it when I might be upset about something that is out of my control has really grounded me and allowed me to just have a little bit more peace in my life.”
She said: "Of course, you won't know exactly what the burnt toast has saved you from, but that's not the point.
“The point is to allow you to accept things in life that are completely out of your control. Give you more peace and ground you.”
While there's no way of proving that there's a good reason behind the times when things go bad (and can be a really difficult one to acknowledge in relation to terrible crimes and deaths of innocent people), the theory is more of way to help us view life more optimistically - you didn't get the job you really wanted because something better was on the way or your partner dumped you because, unknown to you at the time, you went on to meet your soulmate shortly after. Many of us like to find a way to navigate tricky times and having faith in the universe that it was for a good reason helps us accept and move on.
@offthe___grid's TikTok post was flooded with praise from other social media users. One wrote: “This is really helpful today. Thank you.”
And why it's no bad thing.
Another added: “I just love the way you put this and I'm going to actively try to remember this when things aren't going my way.”
And a third simply said: “I needed this.”
If the burnt toast theory helps people through tough times, we are all for it.
