Day 200: You Don’t Have to Call It Good
Today I'm going to share something that on the face of it, you may vigorously disagree with.
And, if you keep reading past the initial disbelief, you may see what I mean.
I believe everything in our lives has the potential to lead us toward our highest good.
Sometimes it's a gift you recognize as a gift.
Sometimes it shows up as utter devastation where you can't imagine what kind of cruel joke it would be to think there is a gift in it.
And yet, later, sometimes several years later, when you look back beyond the loss, you may see what the situation forged in you and how it has served you ever since.
I have found this to be true even in the most tragic and painful experiences in my life.
Every single experience that has cracked me open and left me there to figure out what to do next has changed me.
It's given me a new life skill, made my stronger, kinder, more loving, more open, helped me to recognize something more deeply about myself and the world, given me a greater appreciation for life and its beauty.
We've talked about the contrast that life offers all day long. It's easy to acknowledge that when it's deciding whether you prefer a new flavor of ice cream.
It's much more difficult to allow yourself to see what the contrast has offered in a devastating experience.
But, it can still be there.
For me, cancer, loss of loved ones, divorces, abuse, financial issues. None of them are things I would have wanted in my life, but they all worked together to build the person I am today.
I wouldn't have had the experience, knowledge, compassion, perspective ,or even the desire to help all the women I've helped in the last 26 years if the ability to synthesize those experiences hadn't been forged in those very difficult times.
And while none of it was easy to go through, going through is the only path we have.
Because it's the path that will take us where we're going and we need to trust that.
We get to choose how we view our life experiences and how we allow them to impact us.
Co-creating your life isn't about waiting for something to change and then deciding you'll feel better.
It's about choosing a better-feeling thought and then watching things around you change.
This morning I read this from Wayne Dyer:
Your limits are defined by the agreement you've made about what's possible. Change that agreement and you can dissolve all limits.
That made me think about the agreements we make after painful experiences.
Life means what we decide it means.
Our thoughts, habits, and beliefs become the stories we create that explains our past and create our future.
Better-feeling thoughts create more empowering habits and beliefs, that help us created stories that support the reality of a self-led life.
We don't ever forget what happened.
And we don't have to call it good.
We can choose the agreement we make with life afterward.
We can decide whether the story becomes proof that we are broken, or evidence that something strong, loving, wise, and deeply capable was forged in us.
That choice is where our power returns.
Today's Gentle Practice
Think of one difficult experience that changed you.
Ask yourself:
What strength, wisdom, compassion, or clarity was forged in me because I lived through that?
You don't have to call the experience good.
You certainly don't have to be grateful for what happened.
Just notice one way it shaped something in you that now serves your life.
With you,
Lynn
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