5 Steps That Will Turn Your Problems Into Your Greatest Gifts. Here’s How…
“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts”
Richard Bach
As you read these words you might have found yourself rattling out a list of problems that you currently have. I am sure that you feel that these DO NOT have a gift for you.
And I believe that you have valid reasons and experiences that would back up this conclusion for you.
Most of us in this world, walk around carrying a backpack filled with problems. Some of these problems are self inflicted. While there are other problems that include you but, they were not created by you.
Your problems may include having addictions, self destructive behavior and/or thoughts, fear, anxiety, depression, divorce, trauma from physical or sexual abuse, loneliness, anger, a job you hate, money issues, a loss of a loved one, relationship troubles or any other problem weighing down the backpack that you lug around.
These are real. And I know you feel the heaviness of each of your problems and that they burden your days.
But what if I told you that each of those problems had a gift for you in its hands?
And more importantly, what if you actually BELIEVED me??
Your backpack would become lighter, your heart would feel fuller and life would become deeper.
So, how do you find the gift that each problem has to offer you?
There are a few ways to uncovering this treasure, but today I will be focusing on one main point.
Feeling and Addressing Your Pain
We all have pain.
Just like we all have problems.
Problems are usually where most of our pain roots from. Without the problem, what would the purpose of our pain be?
But to find the gifts in our problems, we must deal with the pain.
This is one of my favorite paradoxes. Just like most paradoxes, it puts you in an uncomfortable place and leaves your brain questioning. It also keeps your mind racing to put together all the pieces that seem to be shaped wrong.
So, invite you to quiet your mind as I walk you through the purpose and benefit of dealing with your pain. And as a consequence of dealing with your pain, it will allow you to heal, and find the gifts that are hidden deep inside of your problems.
1) Waking Up Your Mind
First we must start by waking up your mind.
As humans we have a tendency to live life in cruise control.
We know how most of our days will go, and due to that, we allow our minds to wander and gravitate to other things while we function day by day.
And just like the time you needed to go to the doctor, but instead you found yourself driving the freeway to work, 15 miles in the opposite direction; so it is with us in our daily lives.
We may have the intention of reacting differently and choosing different actions but, 90% of the time we fall back into the patterns that have ruled us most of our life. It is a cruise control pattern that can only be changed by waking up your mind.
How do you Wake UP your Mind?
I want you to take a minute and look into the past few days. Did pain show up for you? And if it did, WHAT did you do right after the pain hit?
- Do you prefer to numb?
- Are you a runner?
- Did you turn to anger and frustration?
Everyone is different and everyone reacts differently to pain. The list of what you could do, runs high and long.
But, beginning to see the patterns that you fall into when you feel pain; is the first step to waking up your mind.
2. Name The Pattern
Next on the journey to finding the gifts, is to name the pattern.
Imagine if you were in a crowded place and there was a dangerous criminal lurking in the shadows, ready to attack. If no one saw him, he would have the advantage. Right?
But if you noticed him, and yelled out loud for everyone to hear, he no longer would have the benefit of being unrecognizable.
Calling him out keeps you safe and puts you in the favored position.
This applies to naming your patterns.
When you begin to name the pattern that you fall into when pain shows us; you begin to have a CHOICE around it. Up until now, there has been little to no choice. This was only the mold you had subconsciously created and there was no other way to be.
But to have choice changes everything. It gives you power and strength. It gives you the ability to check OUT of cruise control and go where you actually want to go!
3. Opening Your Eyes
Can you imagine walking around for a full day with your eyes closed?? Most of us would never do this, because the danger of not being able to see is too great. Except for those who are born blind or become blind, and learn how to live life safely without their sight.
But for the rest of us, spending a day blind is like a death sentence. Imagine driving without your sight or cooking over a hot stove?
As unthinkable as this is, most of us choose to close our “spiritual eyes” around our pain and the true source of that pain.
We tend to walk around with blinders on our eyes and wonder why we can’t find solutions to our problems.
Imagine you have a large wound on your leg. But, you never take the time to look at it. Instead of taking care of the wound, you make sure to take some pain pills that allow you to function, but continue to ignore the wound.
Because the wound is ignored and hasn’t been taken care of, it begins to grow and becomes infected. It has now gotten much worse than it started out in the beginning.
This is what happens when we choose to blind our eyes and refuse to look at our pain. It festers within us and becomes much deeper and more painful than it was to begin with. But if you had looked at the wound on your leg, you would have an idea of what needed to be done to heal your leg. Likely this wound would heal quickly and your leg would function like normal.
Similarly, when we look at what is causing us emotional pain, and the pain itself, we can then identify what actions need to be taken to heal.
And consequently, we heal quicker and function how we were created to function.
Opening your eyes to your pain, is a profound step in your journey.
4.) Allow Yourself To Break
Most of us do not like to break.
I know I don’t.
I have always liked to push my pain deep down, tuck in any leftover fragments and go about my life appearing to have my crap together.
But after a while, that didn’t work anymore. The pain found it’s way out and hell broke loose for me.
Maybe you can relate to this?
Or maybe you can’t.
But I want you to think about what it means to you to be broken?
- Does it make you feel weak?
- Does being broken leave you in self doubt and fear?
- Do you feel unlovable, or not good enough?
For many of us, to be broken is something that we don’t even admit to ourselves.
But this is the most crucial and most beautiful piece of the puzzle.
It is crucial, because the absolute breakdown is what allows for the ultimate growth.
Breaking To Become Our Greatest Self
A month ago I decided to plant some flower seeds in my garden. I became aware of the symbolism between the planting of these seeds and my own life.
I had to push each seed deep down, under the dark, heavy soil. And it was only when I pushed them further down, that allowed them to fully break open and grow up out of the darkness and up towards to the light. Because of that breaking, the seed became the flower it was created to become.
But, the seeds that did not get pushed down are still seeds, laying on top of the dirt. They aren’t changed or even have a glimmer of changing. These seeds still have a lovely life and get the same nourishment of sunlight and water. But, because they have not been pushed down into the darkness of the dirt, they will never break and therefore they will never become a flower.
How crucial is it for us to break?
It is of the most importance, if we chose to have more out of ourselves and out of our lives.
And it is essential for us if we want to find the gifts that our in the hands of our problems.
It is in the breaking that we are cracked open and grow into who we are destined to become.
“We seek the problems because we need their gifts”
I have a deep love for Richard Bach. His words always startle my beliefs and then come back with a deep truth for me.
This sentence is one of those belief breaking truths.
How powerful could our lives be, if we could alter our mindset around our problems?
What if we could change the filter on the glasses we view life through, to see our problems as the gifts they are?
That by seeing them, addressing them and allowing them to break us, we could move faster on our path to greatness and live life filled with deeper meanings and purpose.
I would dare to say, this filter change would transform our lives.
And so, I challenge you to step into this paradox of problems and pain and allow the gift buried deep within your problems to arise.
Step into the greatness that you were created to live.
And allow the heaviness and darkness of pain break you open so that you may push forward up towards the warmth of the sun and radiate the light you have deep within you.
Because, you are more than you think you are…
Call To Action:
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