Life can be so much easier than most of us realise. And I’m not talking about if we could just win the lottery or magically solve all of our perceived problems. In fact, ‘fixing’ everything in our external life might make some things easier, but a lot of our suffering comes down to how we choose to react to life circumstances.
Here’s the truth we find hard to believe: you can find freedom in the very situation you’re currently in. That might sound crazy, even frustrating to read, because it seems so rational that if X were different, life would be fine; while X exists, of course I’m anxious!
But life is inevitably sprinkled with obstacles, losses, frustrations and pain. None of us know for sure why that is, but it’s at least something we can all agree on.
My personal belief is that challenges are actually perfectly placed in our lives. We receive opportunity after opportunity to upgrade our fortitude, get clear on what really matters, and develop immense compassion for our fellow humans going through the same processes.
Accepting that bad things happen is not about becoming apathetic or passive. In fact, I can say from experience that acceptance allows us to redirect all of that energy we’re spending on the resistance. We suddenly have so much more vivacity to put into playing this game of life with the cards we’ve been dealt. With acceptance of what is, we have the clarity to get truly honest about who we are and what we want.
But I won’t lie to you — it’s a big leap from trying to control everything in our life into surrendering to the things we can’t change. It certainly hasn’t been a single leap for me, but years of intentional practice and honest introspection. As the Chinese proverb goes, “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”, and there are indeed some actionable first steps that you can start implementing right away.