How to stay positive

This life is tough. Every day, month, year (even second for some people) we face challenges and hardships. These challenges and hardships can overwhelm us with emotions such as anger, sadness, frustration, grief, sorrow, and the like. Why do we get hardships we might ask. We might even compare to somebody who we feel never gets any hardships in his or her life. But how can we really ever know? 

I will share my analyses and beliefs with regard to why we have hardships and challenges, as well as the meaning behind them in more detail, in a future post. 

In a nutshell, we need to embrace the hard times and challenges. Embracing and seeing the positive side of hardships, as well as taking risks and challenges face on, will always make us grow. Just think about all the stuff you have been through in the past and/or any risks you might have taken on. Don't you feel so much more developed now having gotten through it? Do you feel you have grown as a person? Do you feel a sense of experience and accomplishment? 

I don't believe that it is age that grows your value in life. I believe it is how much you have done for your age. In your years, how many opportunities have you embraced, how many mistakes have you made, how many challenges have you taken on, how much hardship have you managed to cope, how much have you learned about the world, how much dialogue have you had and with how many people? 

There is a beautiful quote (which I know I posted in a previous post last year) that I want to share. During/after my experience travelling China and lot's of Asia - I remember feeling such a connection to this quote; 

I love getting older. 

My understanding deepens.

 I can see what connects.

 I can weave stories of experience

and apply them. I can

integrate the lessons. 

Things simply become more &

more fascinating. Beauty

reveals itself in thousands

of forms. 

-Victoria Erickson

Back to the theme of this post. Before I continue actually, I just want to say that I am still on this journey myself. In fact, I believe everyone is on this journey every day of their lives. It is not easy to stay positive and to embrace the goodness of negative experiences.  I am often described as a really positive person. Someone who is always energetic and happy. To be honest, I am. But not always. Even I have to have that off moment or time just to recuperate. Though, I do find a healthy dose of mindfulness, mixed with nature and love quickly gets me back on track. 

During tough times, here are some of my tips for you on how to stay positive: 

Breathe

Breath is so important. Practicing yoga and meditation helped me to realise just how important breath is. Your breathing can change everything. Take a moment during these times, to step away from a situation, surrounding, people, or place. Literally, go out in the fresh air. And breathe. Look around you as you do it. Take in the big crazy wide world around you. Not only will this moment of breathing calm you down but it will also widen your perspective of life. Whatever is happening was either written, meant to be or is something that you CAN take on. Again, I will talk about my deeper beliefs on this in a future post but essentially anything that comes your way in life will grow you as a person. Sometimes, I even think of it as some sort of game. The next level to pass. After I pass that level I am more elevated and at a higher rank. You truly are. You literally grow. Is it what people call wisdom that you achieve? 

Talk

Meh. Nothing ever gets better when you keep it locked up inside. Try not to let that introvert in you take over. Talking to something, someone or just out loud honestly halves every issue, problem, or challenge. You don't even need to talk to someone necessarily. Just talk out loud. You might believe in God. Talk to God. If you don't, who cares just talk! It will help you to process your own mind and thoughts. It will comfort you. It will help you to conduct a plan. It will help you to feel like you are not alone. It will help you to construct a reasonable response to the situation. It will help you to assess and analyse the problem. Talking to someone or some people may even be more beneficial. We are humanity. We are all on this journey of life. Trust me, there will be someone who is or has been through what you are going through. They can advise you. Help you. Damn more than anything just connect and relate with you. It helps so much. Talk to friends, family, partners. I would even recommend talking to strangers and people you do not know. Why not? We are all more connected in this world than some of us wanna believe. Trust me. 

Nature

I believe nature heals everything. Not only does nature, in my opinion, contain every cure to every disease/ailment (will discuss this in more detail in a future post), but it can also heal all mindful problems. The sound of the wind, the crackle of a fire, the gush of a wave, the chirp of a bird, the heat from the sun, the crisp of leaves on the floor, the breeze through your hair, the drench of rain, the silence of the outside or the flutter of a butterfly. Damn the power of nature. It heals me every time. In fact, whenever I have bigger deeper issues in my life, I would always take it further and just explore the world and its nature. You quickly retire from your hardships. You focus on goodness. The beauty of this world and your existence amongst it all. It is such powerful medicine. 

So, ultimately it is all about focussing on the positive and remembering we are all in this together. Dialogue is key. Learning is so important. It is so cliche to say that there is someone else worse off than you - but to be honest, it really is true. Also, if you see the precious gift of hardship (which I will discuss in more detail in a future post) you will actually find yourself singing praise when you go through something tough. Can you believe that? I know crazy right! 

But I do, I actually thank God every time he sends a challenge or hardship into my life. This is because I know God feels like I can handle it, I can learn from it, I can grow from it and ultimately be elevated as a person. I get to reach the next level in the 'game'. But don't forget, this is a game with an ultimate amount of levels. So, don't be disheartened when you realise you can't win and have no challenge and hardships in your life. 

Maybe that will only come after death?