Don't Give Up
In Buddhism there is a saying "Don't Ever Give Up". In fact I bought a bright red t-shirt that says this on the chest. Life is going to hand us a few curve balls and sometimes those curves are treacherous and hard to handle. At other times those things that happen to us seem outright aweful and we wonder why and even question our faith. We may ask: "Why is this happening to me?" We can even be justified in thinking that this is a fucked up situation that we would rather not have to deal with. This is what I believe:
Every situation and experience has a lesson in it. Until we learn the lesson we might continue to experience the same unpleasant thing. If we have not learned to not be around abusive people then we move on to another abusive person. If we have not understood what sugar does to our body then we continue to eat unhealthy amounts of it until we may become diabetics. Every thing that we experience has a message built into it both positive and negative. If we eat healthy, stay away from abusive folks and eliminate sugar we will surely learn that by making these healthy decisions we will flourish and feel more alive. Until we learn the lesson and then act on this experience we will continue to stay just where we are, repeating the same story and learning over and over again what is in our best interest. We choose.
We can rewrite our old story into a new one. We and only we have the power to change our destination. For many of us sitting down and writing our new story symbolizes a change we are staying we desire and that we are willing to work at. Writing our old story where we are the victim, the "loser" the abused child, the molested girl or the angry boy will help us to process the old story first before going on to write the new story. While in our old story we could be the lost child in our new story we are the adventurous world traveler. Perhaps in our old story we felt victimized yet in our new story we are a hero and a survivor of abuse. The invitation is to write our new story and to see that what we desire most in our lives will become our new reality. It seems to be a far fetched idea, this idea of manifesting what we focus on, yet it is as simple as any other life law. What we focus on most is what we get.
Embrace the darkness and the light. Both are a part of who we are and although it may seem natural to run from the darkness and hide from the light we are doing ourselves a great injustice when we deny our dark feelings of sadness, loss or confusion. Better to embrace the feelings and to move through them than to avoid them, pretend they don't exist or deny them completely. We cannot get though to the light without first understanding that darkness is temporary and that we can feel it and not allow it to take us down. I ask my clients to say: "hello darkness" as if to tell that feeling of darkness is normal and just another feeling. Making light of darkness by not taking it too severely also works at certain times. Know that darkness is the very reason that we all know what light is. If it were not for darkness we may not know so clearly what light feels like. So the invitation is to invite darkness and look at it straight in the center without fear and knowing that this is part of life.
Not giving up is simpler when we understand that we cannot control every moment, every thought or every experience in life. Not giving up means that we can move into the darkness, acknowledge it and then move into the light, each time with more ease. When we decide we are not going to give up we affirm that life is a series of dark moment and radiant light moments, that life is not just one thing. We have the courage to live in a new story and let go of the old story that we lived in for too long. We are intentional in knowing that darkness is never forever and that even if we are going to die that we have the courage to do it with dignity. Not giving up means that we are focused on the light and that no matter how many dark things happen to us, no matter how much darkness seems to come our way we still maintain a faith that we can rewrite our story because holding on to the old story is not what we longer need to do.
Coach Elliott Maximo Collazo.
Every situation and experience has a lesson in it. Until we learn the lesson we might continue to experience the same unpleasant thing. If we have not learned to not be around abusive people then we move on to another abusive person. If we have not understood what sugar does to our body then we continue to eat unhealthy amounts of it until we may become diabetics. Every thing that we experience has a message built into it both positive and negative. If we eat healthy, stay away from abusive folks and eliminate sugar we will surely learn that by making these healthy decisions we will flourish and feel more alive. Until we learn the lesson and then act on this experience we will continue to stay just where we are, repeating the same story and learning over and over again what is in our best interest. We choose.
We can rewrite our old story into a new one. We and only we have the power to change our destination. For many of us sitting down and writing our new story symbolizes a change we are staying we desire and that we are willing to work at. Writing our old story where we are the victim, the "loser" the abused child, the molested girl or the angry boy will help us to process the old story first before going on to write the new story. While in our old story we could be the lost child in our new story we are the adventurous world traveler. Perhaps in our old story we felt victimized yet in our new story we are a hero and a survivor of abuse. The invitation is to write our new story and to see that what we desire most in our lives will become our new reality. It seems to be a far fetched idea, this idea of manifesting what we focus on, yet it is as simple as any other life law. What we focus on most is what we get.
Embrace the darkness and the light. Both are a part of who we are and although it may seem natural to run from the darkness and hide from the light we are doing ourselves a great injustice when we deny our dark feelings of sadness, loss or confusion. Better to embrace the feelings and to move through them than to avoid them, pretend they don't exist or deny them completely. We cannot get though to the light without first understanding that darkness is temporary and that we can feel it and not allow it to take us down. I ask my clients to say: "hello darkness" as if to tell that feeling of darkness is normal and just another feeling. Making light of darkness by not taking it too severely also works at certain times. Know that darkness is the very reason that we all know what light is. If it were not for darkness we may not know so clearly what light feels like. So the invitation is to invite darkness and look at it straight in the center without fear and knowing that this is part of life.
Not giving up is simpler when we understand that we cannot control every moment, every thought or every experience in life. Not giving up means that we can move into the darkness, acknowledge it and then move into the light, each time with more ease. When we decide we are not going to give up we affirm that life is a series of dark moment and radiant light moments, that life is not just one thing. We have the courage to live in a new story and let go of the old story that we lived in for too long. We are intentional in knowing that darkness is never forever and that even if we are going to die that we have the courage to do it with dignity. Not giving up means that we are focused on the light and that no matter how many dark things happen to us, no matter how much darkness seems to come our way we still maintain a faith that we can rewrite our story because holding on to the old story is not what we longer need to do.
Coach Elliott Maximo Collazo.
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