Following Adversity Anticipate Better Days Ahead

When adversity pays a visit and things start to unravel, it’s easy to just give up. Give up trying, give up striving, give up the fight. We look upon this one day as if it were the be all end all. The relationship went south, a dream job ended, the friendship took a nosedive, and you’re left to ponder what’s next. Then something worse happened from that point on, everything from finance to health took the plunge. Where do you even begin and when does this kind of stuff end?

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF ADVERSITY

The trouble is we entertain adverse cycles, our thoughts follow, and that is when we lose perspective. Focused more on the adversity than on what positive things exist. The fact that you are still experiencing life, facing the good and the bad, and enduring the story you create by breathing in the moments and dreaming. Perhaps even praying that the adversity and the suffering that comes with it reaches the finish line. Sometimes we have to subject ourselves to worse before we can obtain something better. However, the key here is to dwell on the positive rather than the negative. It’s difficult to stay optimistic when everything around you is falling apart, and you don’t know which way is up. Nevertheless, it’s important not to accept defeat and play the victim role. I know, easier said than done.

LIFE SOMETIMES THROWS A CURVE BALL

If everything is going downhill and you can’t make sense of the why behind the what then it is time. Time to leave the path of resistance and head for the pathway of acceptance. We spend so much of our time and energy fighting our way through the adversity and obstacles that we fail to notice a way out. At times, it becomes apparent, and we can plainly see it, but for some reason, we refuse to acknowledge it. We choose to dwell intently on our habitual patterns and routines, just assuming we are stuck in the hardship. We forget that we have the power to change some things.

Sometimes life’s way of blocking us from going in the wrong direction is to throw a curve ball. Perhaps the route we are so intent on taking is the wrong way. We conclude that one way is preferable over another. However, maybe the detour placed on our trail was to discourage us from moving away from something good toward something unfavorable. It encouraged us to look the other way, to focus on what lies ahead rather than behind us. Ultimately it challenged us to disregard the direction we sometimes stubbornly take and to perhaps notice that a better way exists.

FACE THOSE FEARS

As we live out our breaths, we find ourselves caught off guard, notably when something mystical unfolds. We feel uncomfortable as we continue to cling to what it is we know. Perhaps afraid to step away from the familiar even though urged to step onto a new path. We hold ourselves back from investigating what it is that calls our attention. When things take a turn for the worse, we sometimes run in the wrong direction toward that place we feel safe. However, sometimes that place of safety is only an illusion. It’s like an Alfred Hitchcock movie, with its twists and turns, just as you take a deep breath and exhale a sigh of relief you find yourself facing what you feared the most.

A BETTER DAY IS ON ITS WAY

You seen it so many times before, felt it, acknowledged it, and there it was, what you spent all your time focused on somehow came to be at the moment you least expected it. Then instead of reverting your attention away from the unacceptable, the undesirable, and the intolerable you hold onto the negative images and get stuck in a place you don’t belong, in the space of pain, regret, and frustration. Sometimes in those darkest hours, we can see the flicker of light, and now we capture the glimmer of hope. As we focus on resting in hope by making it our sole attention, we find ourselves at the place of stillness, that moment of silence when we can finally hear a gentle whisper, telling us a better day is on its way. Sometimes all it takes for things to change is just a day away.