Shifting Out Of Difficulty

 

At the end of a group session last week, a wise member said, "this is all great, but it only works if we do it." I couldn't agree more. It's true of everything we learn about living a mindful life. We ultimately have to do it. As another community member said, it takes will. I think we have to get to the place in our lives where that's what we truly want. We can't make it be there, but we can water it and the more we do, the more we realize that there is no turning back. To turn back would be to turn away from being present to this "one wild and precious life," as Mary Oliver so beautifully said. It would be to turn back to drama and the perpetuation of suffering. It would be to ignore our interconnection to each other and the earth. It would be to fall back asleep.

This week I want to share with you some questions we can ask ourselves to help us in any moment of difficulty to move toward a lighter place. In order for these questions to be beneficial we first need to allow ourselves to feel the pain or difficulty and meet ourselves with kind and compassionate energy. From there we can then ask these questions to create a shift. You can apply one or all of them. I find them helpful to either talk aloud or to journal on.

• What are some possible upsides or positive outcomes of this that I have not been seeing yet? (This requires us to step back and into our higher/wiser self).

• What else is true about this that could bring goodness? Most likely I have only been seeing in a limited way and not all of what is true. For example, "he said something that I don't like, but that doesn't negate all these other good things he's said and done."

• What can I be grateful for in this situation given that it is here? To do this first requires accepting the situation as it is, not as we want it to be. 

• This hardship may be here, but what else is here this day/week/month/year that has brought me joy? Doing this, we recognize that this one thing is not "all of me."

• Visualizing good moments from the past – call up the specific place, sensations, feelings and revisit the moment to water joy when our tank feels low. Not to escape, but to replenish and be reminded that there is more than this hardship.

Facing anything difficult this week? Give these a try and let me know how it goes.  These won't bring immediate joy, but they shift us from a place of negativity to more possibility and openness. Remember, "it only works if we do it."

🍁
Jean