Overcoming Difficulties

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined!

~ Henry David Thoreau

Stepping into the life of your dreams can be scary especially if you are starting from ground zero. There are a lot of people in the world in this situation today. They are looking for jobs, finding jobs and leaving jobs. During this time, having faith that all will turn out even better than one could possibly imagine is challenging, especially when your situation gets rough. This is usually the time when I dive into yoga. I hit my mat and start to work things out there. Yet, I always seem to find a pose... or five... that I struggle with during these life challenges.


Things always get worse before they get better... ever hear that expression? Sometimes the Universe pushes us in the optimal direction... whether we like it or not. It takes us out of our comfort zone so we can rely on our faith to pull us into that next level of life. Ever have a yoga teacher encourage you into a pose that you've never tried? That teacher is encouraging you into the next level of your practice, and one day it just clicks!


For example; My daughters fish tank was in need of a serious cleaning. We weren't too sure if there were any fish still alive in the small, bubbling tank until (peeking through the algae) we saw movement!! "THEY'RE ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!" she shouted like Dr. Frankenstein. I'm not proud of the condition of the tank but, hey, life happens and some things fall low on the priority list. It happens to the best of us humans. But, I digress.


In order to clean the tank I needed to transfer the fish into another container. All I had was a huge glass hurricane (candle holder)... I figured that would work for however long it would take me to clean the tank. Good idea... Until the cats saw something moving in the glass container. Yes, I said cats, plural... more than one... two to be exact... cats. This is what happened...

Remind you of a saying? Yeah! Things always seem to get worse before they get better!! I would not want to be in the position of those fish! However, this is a perfect example of how things got a little out of control (tank not clean) and needed to be corrected. Hence things became worse for the fish before it got better. Remember when you tried yoga for the first time? Were you looking around the room wondering if you were doing the pose correctly? Were you a little out of your comfort zone? Then... remember the day your body told you, "I've got this. You relax."


By the way, the fish were safe and only in this container for a bit. No harm was done to the fish in the cleaning of the tank. And... the fish are VERY happy in their clean home.

"Any circumstance you find yourself in is only temporary and can change in an instant. Your attitude and state of mind is the steering wheel of your life, what you think about and project into a situation intensifies and eventually manifests in real life. Meet every circumstance with a positive outlook and when setbacks come - hold the course. The dawn will break!"

~ Jackson Kiddard

We all go through bouts of difficult situations in our lives. Some go through more difficult situations than others but the point is not to compare, judge or contrast the level of difficulty of the situation like an Olympic Dive. Life is not the Triple Lindy for everyone. Life is what you make of it. If you perceive your life as full of challenges then challenges and tough situations will find you. We attract what we think and believe, and if a person believes that his/her life is difficult it will be. Our level of perception, like the picture above looks like a mirror image of one cat but it is actually two, is up to us. The choice of thoughts on whether a situation is bad or good is also our choice.

Now apply the following to yourself:

You are simply the best. You completely blow my mind. Everyone is in total awe. How you hold together under pressure. How you face up to your challenges. And your rebound ability totally rocks.

You are driven, persistent and strong. Playful, silly, fun... Compassionate, sympathetic and understanding. You are just plain unstoppable. And you always have time for others. What a package!

... So ...

How about cutting yourself some slack every now and then?

Yes, feel free to have a Stewart Smalley moment then let's get back to business. The business of knowing our own worth and when bad things happen it allows us the opportunity to change our thoughts. Instead of the situation happening "to" us I like to think it happens "for" us. For us to learn, to grow, to move on from a situation that was holding us back from being the best we could possibly be. There are so many things for us to learn in this life... my hope is that I learn quickly from my mistakes and life circumstances and that I honor and am grateful for how far I have come and to those that have helped me get here.

... and doggone it... people like me.

Peace and Love to all