“Hunger, thirst, cold, fatigue, your own physical and mental limitations – you will feel all of these. This teaches you about nature, more than that, you come face to face with yourself.” ~Willi Unsoeld
If your life has been anything like mine over the last year, high and low tides rather than “smooth sailing” has been the norm. I personally have noticed that whenever I am in the middle of a “low” I am anxiously awaiting for things to get back to “normal.” In the middle of tears the other day and feeling pitifully sorry for myself, I stopped in my tracks and asked “what the heck is normal anyway?”
I realized that, to me, “normal” meant having absolutely no bad feelings or events happening in my life. I get to stay in my daily routine, uninterrupted and pleasantly invite the highs into my life, praying for the lows to stay at bay. If that is the case, in the last 42 years my life has rarely been normal! Life is easy to live when things are going the way you think they should. You go about your life with ease and are feeling pretty good about yourself. The minute something happens that knocks you out of that routine, something that makes you uncomfortable, we feel “off” and try desperately to get back to our comfortable routine.
I recently had the pleasure of attending a workshop by Gregg Braden, author of the new book “Deep Truth.” Gregg addressed this idea of waiting to return to normal using our economy as an example. When our economy takes a down turn, many people put their lives on hold, waiting to spend their money or take that trip until things return to “normal.” What I find interesting is that when things get back to normal, it is never how it was before anyway. Something (or someone) has always changed. Has it really gotten back to normal or has enough time gone by that we are now just used to the new way things are…the new normal?
As humans we do not like discomfort. We try desperately to stay comfortable and predict the future events of our lives. We like to know what is going to happen when, how others are going to react to us…even go so far as to structure our lives around the weather.
I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t like waiting. Instead of waiting for my life to get back to “normal” I decided to re-define my personal definition of normal.
“Normal” = a state of centered consciousness and balance an individual maintains no matter how the outward circumstances of the individuals life present themselves.
I am here to live my life, not to wait for it. Yes, during trying times, it is sometimes much harder to find the joy and balance we so enjoy but those feelings are simply a state of consciousness, which means WE have control over them. We so often give the power of our lives over to outside circumstances, people and events and then allow our lives to get out of control, all the while blaming someone else for our misfortune and bad feelings. Ultimately, YOU are in charge of your life, your feelings and your thoughts. Instead of waiting for things to be normal and perfect in order to feel better, create your own state of being by choosing how you want to feel and do what you need to do to make that so.
Life will never be perfect if you constantly expect it to be. You must create your own perfection.
Light and love to you for a “normal” day,
Chris
“Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live: How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life” by Chris Sopa published by Balboa Press.
Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.