Life's Like That

​I was talking to a friend the other day about life and how hard it can be. How it never stays easy and straightforward, and how the challenges seem to get bigger not smaller. How we’re going along quite well, thank you, then ‘Boof’ out of nowhere comes the hit! Why is that? What did we ever do to deserve that? 

​As we talked further the realisation hit. It all seems to come down to perception, and though there’s many possibilities ‘one size fits all’ is not one of them. The challenges seem to vary depending on where we’re at in our own lives.
Perhaps we’re meant to learn something from them, perhaps overcoming them is where the lesson lies.
If it’s hard, we have to dig deep.
If its ongoing we’re forced to go deeper.
In the very worst situations, we are actually excavating. Digging through old beliefs and values to what would work best for right here, right now.
 
Going deep is not for the feint hearted, its challenging, confronting and messy. It’s like holding the magnifying side of the mirror up close – we know it’s an option, we’d just prefer not having the truth so big and, well scary. It’s not pretty to look at, and in fact looking away is more comfortable and easier.
Considering it’s there and needs addressing tells us something, if it wasn’t staring us in the face, it wouldn’t be needed. For some reasons, at this time in our lives, it’s needed.
If life was all rainbows and ice-creams, we wouldn’t need to do much soul searching. We would probably cruise along, happily enough, without any difficult or traumatic experiences to overcome and therefore grow from.
Our choice then becomes, facing it, dealing with it and overcoming it.
Is that possible?
Yep sure is.
 
When I was growing up, my life was not all rainbows and ice-creams. It was scary and dysfunctional, and all I could do was survive it or not. That was the choice. Give in to the fear and loneliness or learn to overcome as best I could. Fortunately, I chose the latter, with some help from my Angels. I managed to adapt to survive. As a teenager I became adept at this, and almost chameleon like and as a young adult even more so. The true me didn’t emerge till I was in my 30’s. And that is when the real work on growing from the challenges began.
My challenges were not easy, and what they have in common with yours is that I had a choice – to learn and grow from them, or to let them control me.
 
I learned – painfully and slowly, to grow. Not well, not in a smooth straight line. More like a windup toy that’s gotten out of control. But what I learned has held me in good stead for every other challenge I’ve faced since that time – and there’s been a few…..
The challenges always make me stronger
They always make me grow
I always come out the other end a little more beaten up but also wiser.
 
So, when you are facing challenges in your life: Know this

• You’re not alone
• You will cope with what is in front of you
• You will learn more about yourself than you ever imagined
• You will become more resilient and stronger over time

 
Imagine if our world was straight forward and easy and peaceful. Ok, bad question.
But imagine if we didn’t have to face hard questions/situations? We would never need to look inwards to that person who is us. The journey to who we are would be quite short and probably not have much depth. We wouldn’t have the wisdom or compassion we do now.
Wishing for an easier time of it, unfortunately doesn’t make it so.
What I’ve learnt is to embrace what life throws at me, because I figure – I’ve got this!
And if I haven’t, I’ll grow from it.
And if I don’t, I know life will throw me another challenge, until I do.
 
We are always changing and growing. We can resist this and fight it all the way, or we can go with it, trust the process and know we will be okay in the end.
Because the truth is, we will be.
We will come out the other end battered and bruised but we will emerge.
 
Trust yourself
Trust the process
You’ve got this.