There have to be literally thousands of quotes and cliches floating out of space or wherever quotes and cliches hang out. And if you're hunting for that perfect quote or cliche all you have to do is simply reach up and pull one out of thin air that will aid you in making some point regarding life and how one should live it. Or something like that.
Whether the use of quotes and cliches is of any significance, in the end, might be debatable given the definition of cliche is, "an idea or phrase which has been used so much that it is no longer interesting or effective or no longer has much meaning."
Nevertheless, I have one here that is exceedingly appropriate to what we're talking about. I'm sure we've all heard at some point, that when we're in the middle of a battle, it is often hard to know if we're winning the war.
And if we're brutally honest with ourselves, all of us have been in and/or will be dealing with some struggle, or issue within our life of some description and size. Perhaps we're even in the middle of one right at this very moment.
In any given year or time of our life, issues, struggles, or conflicts seem to arrive on a fairly consistent basis. Some are major in nature; some might be relatively minor, and others might fall somewhere in between. One might even arrive 15 minutes from now. I hope not, but realistically one never really knows.
Now, I don't know many of us out there, that are true fans of the "struggle."
I suspect that most of us would be quite content and happy to truck along through our years and not have any serious struggles show up on any regular or semi-regular basis. We might desire or wish that, but we know that thought isn't steeped in any level of reality.
The truth, however, is that struggles do show up whether we want them to or not.
Some might be minor like waiting for the bus in the rain, while others will be much more serious and traumatic within the context of our lives.
Trust your struggle, because it reveals something yet to come.
As they say in the Maritimes...Whaaaaaaaaaa! What? Why?
Why "trust your struggle?"
The obvious answer is - "why not?"
But, come on, there has to be a better response than "why not?"
At some level, the struggles we go through at least from my perspective are not the same as difficult events that arrive on our doorstep unannounced.
Although an unexpected and difficult situation that suddenly arrives in our life can be full of challenging struggles for sure.
I'm not really talking about that in this post, so here are a couple of points in regard to this struggle of "trusting your struggle."
Trusting Your Struggle
One
Ever notice it can be the same freaking struggles that keep showing up again and again.
Often referred to as "the same shit; different day."
The circumstances may be different; the people involved may be different, but one particular struggle or problem occurs exactly the same way each time. It is like the universe has pre-ordained that this struggle is the burden we have to carry.
Well, perhaps it is the universe with a tad of a "hate-on" for you. But, I doubt it.
But more likely it is this.
We(and I have myself at the top of the list here) can have a really hard time acknowledging the struggles we deal with. In other words, we refuse to take ownership of them or see what our role is in the struggle we find ourselves in. We can get trapped in a cycle of resisting and denial for a wide variety of reasons.
We get stuck in the struggle. Sort of an endless loop.
For example, you get pissed by the same things again and again in each relationship you find yourself in. Or perhaps it's the story you tell yourself and others if they will listen, that you will always be on the lower economic end of the scale because you continually tell yourself "you'll always be on the lower end of the economic scale."
I get that admitting we may have a role in the struggle we're in, is a difficult and many times virtually impossible reality for many of us. I include myself in this particular group.
But we do need to get a handle on our responsibility in what's going on.
Although a challenge at best, we need to examine what our own accountability is in those situations. Perhaps it means working at developing greater tolerance and empathy towards ourselves and others. Maybe, we need to be more cognizant of opportunities that surround us and seize one, before it passes us by once again.
Trusting our struggles, means we're taking the "bull by the horns" and working towards growing as a person which will allow us to move beyond some "endless struggle loop" we've dealt with in our past.
Two
The second point and the first point, go together like "ham and cheese" in a sandwich.
As such, the only way we can grow from our struggles is to really be in the struggle.
Brilliant deduction there Sherlock.
In other words, when you are in the middle of the struggle, show up, kick it in the "nards" and be aware of what is going on.
"Stay with the struggle" might be an appropriate phrase right here.
If we hang there and are truly working on getting a handle on the struggle and how to get out of it or smash that crap out of it, that's where we want to stay.
That's where the growth occurs.
Bailing out of the struggle by distracting yourself with substance abuse, or perhaps crazily spending money, or mindless time spent on social media or any other number of ways of numbing the "old mind" is bad.
Staying is good; bailing/distracting is bad.
Hanging in there may allow you to grow in ways, that well, you likely have needed to grow and change all of your life.
In order to grow and win the battle, you need to be in the battle and doing the work/fighting in order to win.
Can you "trust your struggle?"
You can if you really want to.
The most difficult and often challenging, yet life-transforming endeavor before you, may end up being to do the dirty work of looking at and examining who you truly are in the reflection of life's mirror.
Do you have the guts to take a peak?
That is often the biggest struggle of all.
--as always with love--
--- get outdoors; find inspiration; discover yourself ---
No comments:
Post a Comment