We win some and we learn some

How great would it be if we could simply turn things around in our head and see all problems and all hurts as nothing else but growing opportunities. I did this with red lights years ago, rather than getting frustrated when I hit a red light, I would take it as an opportunity to relax and repeat a few mantras while breathing deeply. I got so good at this that at some point I looked forward to red lights, I know, I am nuts. But you have to admit, my entire experience of and relationship to red lights changed without reality having to change. In the end nothing was really different, the red lights were still there, the only difference was my perception. As Wayne Dyer says, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

As stated in a previous posts, us human beings do most of our growing and learning in bad times, to grow we seem to need the pain that comes along with it. If it is too easy and too pleasant, we don’t seem to value it. Go figure, maybe we are all weird.

Life is really not about getting rid of problems, it’s about changing our perception of them and our relationship to them. If your focus is on getting rid of problems, than that is all you will ever do in life. Your life will be a constant juggling of problems, when one is solved another will appear to replace it, at some point the balls need to drop. We need to let them drop rather than trying to keep things going, neat and ordered. In many ways, the nature of life is to be a constant succession of problems. Spirituality, true transformation resides in our ability to see problems and disturbances as opportunities. When we can change our perception and see the thorns of life as agents of growth, we can then begin to embrace them and release them, thus finding true freedom. As Reed Lindbergh said, there is a great freedom that comes from choosing to remain open to life itself, whatever it may bring: joys, sorrows, triumphs, failures, suffering, comfort, and certainly, always, change.

Happy juggling...

Live fully, live joyfully, live kindly,
-ivc-