Finding the answer to life challenges can result in people needing a stress management program after the lack of clarity that many might feel they get in response to their questions. We are all here to excel in life but that requires us to pay the piper in facing life challenges and being willing to take the pain that will come our way. The interesting thing is that few understand that life is constantly showing you were you can be more. This is done, though, in a way that seems counter intuitive and productive to what we want. That way being provided to us is actually through resistance. Life is actually meant to be easy and can be, yet resistance plays a key part in that easiness. Remember life is a paradox.
Maybe the best way to start explaining things is to focus on people's resistance to change. Change is usually seen as a bad thing and people will do whatever they can to keep from experiencing it. Yet, change is really growth in disguise for those people who do not know the value of change. Even change in a direction that does not seem helpful is true growth. Change allows you to experience another perspective and adds value to your life and gives you a new set of skills. This change can be stressful to a person, but it really should be embraced.
If you are unwilling to change then you are in resistance to life since nature itself is constantly changing. When I was recently asked by someone, "help me cope with life", the answer I gave them was that first and foremost they must be willing to overcome their challenges in life. Then after committing to that, they must be willing to completely surrender to life and not resist. The reason I asked them to do this is I want them to understand that life is a mirror. So when they resist life, they resist themselves. How can they expect to change if they keep resisting themselves? Even if they could figure out how to do it, why would they want to make that change any harder than it already is. No one wants to beat themselves up more than is needed to accomplish anything in life.
Ekhart Tolle, author of the Power of Now, talks about resistance to life that will hopefully provide you some insight about one of the easiest answers in how to cope with life's challenges.
“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them - while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.”
Everything we need in life is exactly right there in front of us. It does not always look pretty, but if you overcome that initial reaction and move past what you think you "should" be experiencing to what you "are" actually experiencing, without judgment, you will then find the coping mechanism you are so looking for. This is the first step and very important. If you cannot even do this then you will constantly face the same life challenges. Even those people that disagree and said they will never surrender and still will overcome the problem - still do surrender on some way. They acknowledge that issue and accept that they are facing it. So that in itself is surrender and the willingness to remove your resistance to life and the challenge you are being faced with.
There is so much more we can and should talk about but I really want to keep my posts shorter. So if you are trying to find ways to cope with life and the challenges you face, I hope this post has brought some sense of peace or at least a small glimmer of understanding to you. Life is simple but a paradox because of the complexity within. Now that you have that spark of inspiration and understanding, let us dive deeper into it and turn it into a raging fire to burn out all that stress, depression, and unwanted stuff from your life. Watch for some more posts about life…