I’ve noticed lately that there is a common theme in my life. Every time I think that I am done with the lesson, it manifests in another way that challenges me and tells me that there’s still more work to be done. I used to find it frustrating, now I see it as a reminder that instead of wishing things were different; I have to learn to accept what is. If you’ve heard me refer to myself as a control freak, you can imagine how challenging this is for me!
Accepting things as they are isn’t about resigning myself to some unhappy fate. It’s about focusing on the things I can control, which is really about how I deal with the cards I’m dealt with. The lessons we’re faced with in life can leave us feeling angry, sad or simply defeated. When the lessons we’re faced with aren’t pleasant ones, it’s hard to see them as teaching moments. They often feel like they are beating us up rather than making us stronger. How many times have you been going through a rough patch and had someone remind you that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger? How many times have you wanted to tell the person sharing that pearl of wisdom with you to stick it? 😉
While it never seems to feel like it at the time, these tough lessons that we never seem to be able to shake do make us stronger. They help us tap into our inner strength. They force us to become more aware of ourselves. They ask us to have faith that everything really does happen for a reason, even when we’re not quite clear what that reason is.
We have to be careful not to let the tough lessons we experience eat away at us. We can’t allow them to make us bitter or leave us trapped in a victim mindset. These things are happening to you for a reason, and it’s not to punish you. Often times, these lessons challenge us to step outside our comfort zone. They ask us to follow our intuition, no matter how scary doing what we are called to do is.
You may have heard me say this before, and I think it’s worth repeating now: the universe starts out giving us subtle hints to guide us to where we need to be, when we choose not to see the signs or hear the whispers, the hints become less and less subtle. Don’t be mad; just pay more attention when the hints present themselves. ♥