“May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy water.” — Buddha
It is possible to not only survive, but even find reason to celebrate difficult, trying, tough times. It might even be possible to experience excitement because of the potential for something new just on the other side. Here comes change, an opportunity for transformation and growth, and something better if I open to it. What a gift! It’s not every day I get an invitation like this.
Alright, if you’re reading this thinking, sure that all sounds great in theory, but it really sucks going through it, I get it. I totally get it. There is no denying it feels uncomfortable. the very human knee-jerk reaction for all of us is to run away, to do whatever we have to in order to feel better, to get rid of that feeling of discomfort, discontentment, suffering, anger, pain, whatever it feels like to you, big or small.
I should clarify that when I talk about suffering, it may be in reference to a big, heavy , monumental time in one’s life, or it may not be. It might be just a small, passing moment of discontentment that quickly gets brushed under the rug. The prescription for both big and small (and everything in between) is the same.
If you can stay, just stay, feel fully, and breathe into that feeling (and you CAN because you are so strong and so courageous), when you turn toward it, that’s when the transformation begins. When we train in staying over and over again, we get better practiced at it, and it feels less overwhelming, less scary, more familiar, and maybe even becomes a friend or welcomed guest as we recognize the opportunity it presents.
There’s the peace we’re seeking! Not in attaining a life that is easy and seamless, but in growing ourselves, evolving to be a person that can breathe through it all.
“It isn’t that the waves stop coming; it’s that because you train in holding the rawness of vulnerability in your heart, the waves just appear to be getting smaller and smaller, and they don’t knock you over anymore.” — Pema Chödrön
Krystal Barschig 