It’s an art to transform hardship into something positive. It starts with your mindset. My favorite saying from my Transformational Life Coaching training is “Energy cannot be created or destroyed – only transformed.” If you sit with that a while, it will redirect your thoughts to consider how this transformation process works.
I’m still grieving the loss of my tree friends in the park across the street. I have talked with the Executive Director, hoping something positive will be done with them – their trunks and limbs scattered everywhere. Yes, I learned, they will become benches, tables, art and other useful things. They will be transformed and have a second life.
There’s opportunity for positive change in every hardship and loss, you just have to be open to look for it and create it. Here’re a few guidelines.
LOOK FOR THE OPPORTUNITY IN THE HARDSHIP/LOSS
The idea that you can “find a silver lining in the cloud” comes close to explaining how finding opportunity in hardship or loss works. If you step back far enough, you’ll see that you’re being forced to accept a hard reality and consider other options. That’s where you’ll find the potential for positive change or new opportunity.
CREATE SOMETHING NEW
Just as the broken tree trunks and limbs of the downed trees offer opportunity to create something new, our losses do too. My cousin’s husband’s death is giving everyone in our large extended family a chance to gather – amazingly for the first time. My divorce years ago gave me the opportunity to learn, grow and explore to make my life what I really wanted.
TAKE THE FOCUS OFF ADVERSITY AND LOOK FORWARD
There really is a thing to becoming so used to being in difficulty that you automatically look for it. From an energetic perspective, you’re only drawing more adversity to yourself.
You have to retrain yourself to look forward and find the positive. It’s the mindset work you need to do. Give yourself time to grieve and then look forward.
It takes a leap of faith and practice and to embrace this outlook. Once you’ve discovered it, you won’t go back. The change is that dramatically positive. Reach out if you want help. It’s what I do. www.spectrumtransformation.com
