Somewhere along the way I bought into the lie that if I did xyz life would be easy and free of problems. Then I bought into the lie that if my life wasn’t easy and free of problems I wasn’t doing enough or believing enough of xyz. It’s like the prosperity message and the positivity message had merged and let me down. Life was hard and I couldn’t embrace it.
But life is hard and I think, now, we should embrace it. Because although life is hard there is something we have complete control over: our response.
Between a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E. Frankl
Do you realize you have that choice?
The extremely powerful choice to choose your response.
This choice gives me so much hope.
Life is hard, embrace it.
But before you embrace your hard, you need to determine what your response to your hard things should be. I’ve discovered five things that are extremely helpful in determining your response. For a general reference point I’m linking to my current resources for my recent hard: too much loosing my temper towards my children, aka anger issues;)
- Define it: pick one area of your life that is repeatedly hard and define exactly what it is.
- Share it: talk to a trusted friend, counselor, or safe online community. At the very least journal about your hard. Writing is very therapeutic.
- Read about it: find non fiction and fictional books about your hard and read read read. You will no doubt discover a perspective you needed.
- Listen about it: for the busy mom or working woman, discover podcasts or audible books on your hard and pop in those ear buds for some on the go therapy.
- Choose to grow: choose your responses to your hard and choose to change.
At the end of the day, life is hard. Your hard will be different than mine or your friend’s. My life has been sprinkled with the challenges of multiple moves, multiple deployments and related PTSD issues, mild postpartum depression, my husband’s best friend’s suicide, severe illness in a child, two complicated pregnancies, challenging children, and anger issues.
We live in a world full of hard that will directly or indirectly impact us and our families. But we all have the power of choice in our responses, so we can grow beyond the hard.
