When I was young(er), I used to have a poster on my bedroom wall with the saying ‘this too shall pass‘ ! The saying had a profound affect on my psyche because every time there was a problem – no matter how big or small – all I had to do was stare at those words on the wall and reflect on that saying! That WAS then! There was less knowledge and less experience, so the mind did not wander that much! Now its different.. no matter how long I stare at those words, its harder and harder to make its magic work!
Isn’t it logically true though? Just like there is light (day) after dark (night), bad and good are always alternating. When you are down, where will you go but up, right? So why is it that when we are supposed to be ‘growing’ in our knowledge, becoming more mature as we gain more experience in just about everything in life as we age, we forget the profound sayings! why now those words on the poster saying ‘this too shall pass’ don’t work?
I recenly started reading Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams (based on Creating Affluence)
Dr. Chopra talks about seven laws: Pure Potentiality, Giving, Karma or Cause and Effect, Least Effort, Intention and Desire, Detachment, Dharma or Purpose in Life. I think applying his instructions in life might make a big difference. I am going to have to work out the stress and worry I feel about differnt situations and figure out how to use his laws constructively to help solve problems.
I also feel that it is not what happens to us in life, it is how we react to different circumstances, challenges, problems and difficulties. Reacting not only physically by actions, but in our thoughts and in feelings. By controlling that loud inner dialogue, and that self-talk that gets triggered automatically as a result of these events, we would be a lot more equipped to deal with the challenges every one of us faces at one time or another. The words we choose to describe these external events that happen to us, not to others, but to ourselves, will eventually affect our emotional as well as psychological life making it happy, sad and/or angry. But by training ourselves regularly to think about only those events and those moments that trigger happy thoughts, we would be able to overcome these obstacles with much more ease than otherwise!
It may be extremely difficult but practicing to turn each and every situation into a learning experience and thereby growing into a stronger person should be our daily mantra! Staying objective and finding something positive in each and every situation, however adverse it might be, will eventually be to our own benefit.
Peter Haslam
Wisdom only comes from the pain of experience