Did you recently have an experience in life where you felt as if you failed? Or maybe you did everything on your part however you were let down. Do you feel like you failed yourself, or maybe like life failed you?
Hitting roadblocks and hardships is a natural part of life but knowing this doesn’t stop us from feeling hurt and upset when something unexpected happens to us. We think to ourselves, “How many times have I been here? How many times is life going to kick me down? How many times to I have to put myself out there before I catch a break?”
Life isn’t easy and I’d be lying if I told you that it always works out in your favor. Sometimes people we love die, sometimes we get fired for no reason at all, sometimes our businesses fail even though we put our heart and soul into them. Sometimes it makes no sense at all! Why even try in this world and put yourself out there if you’re only ever going to get kicked down by life?
I ask myself the same questions when life throws me curveballs, which is quite frequently. Because life is a chaotic and random process that operates beyond our linear understanding mind. Just when you feel as if you figured a couple of things out, “BAM!” You get hit with another curveball. “What the hell life?”
In this article I’m going to share with you how to flow with life even when it seems to be working against you, the importance of resiliency, and then finally I’ll share with you the most beneficial mindset you can take towards life that will guide you towards success, personal happiness, and fulfilment.
As living and breathing human beings we exist in a current. We are a part of life. There is an ebb and flow to our lives. If you pay attention to your life over the years you will start to find that you have up and downs. Low periods and high periods. Peaks and troughs. This is normal if you are an expanding soul. This is how the universe operates, through contraction and expansion. It’s how things grow. It’s also how things become stronger.
A blacksmith continually burns and cools a slab of metal until it is a sharp sword that can cut through anything. This is you! And this is your life process. Life will kick you in the gut and then it will offer you a hand to pull yourself back up. It seems like a contradiction and sometimes it makes no sense.
I even find myself giving a few middle fingers to life and God or the cosmos at times. And other times I find myself in complete tears moved to the deepest grace at the beauty and mystery of it all. Sometimes life is a walking contradiction that makes no sense. Embrace the paradox of life and don’t take it too seriously. This is where your attitude towards life comes in handy.
Would it confuse you if your best friend punched you in the stomach and then gave you a helping hand to get back up. Absolutely, but this is what life does. And if you take it too seriously then when it acts in this bizarre and misleading way then it can drive you mad. This is why we must practice nonattachment, in all aspects of your life. Nonattachment to outcome. Now you may ask, “How can you do anything and not be attached to the results? Don’t you do things for a reason.” This doesn’t mean doing things for no reason. It means doing things and taking action but not putting your happiness on the end result or the fruit that you bear.
It will punch you in the stomach with one hand and then pull you back up with the other. If your attached and involved emotionally to what it’s doing then you will be pulled back and forth like a ragdoll. However, if you can practice nonattachment and just see that this is the way life operates and ride the ebbs and flows and accept the paradox and contradiction then you can remain mentally and emotionally stable.
You can still take action, be passionate, and be intensely involved in this world yet remain detached to the outcome. Simply look at every action you do as duty to yourself and humanity. Whatever it is you have to do simply do it for the sake of doing it. Don’t be attached to the outcome. If it crashes and burns it crashes and burns. If it takes off and soars then it takes off and soars. You cannot control your external life. You can only control your internal reactions. And if you want to live on this planet joyfully and not be tossed and turned by every ebb and flow then learn nonattached action.
Take action, be intensely involved, yet do not be attached to the outcome. If you place all your energy onto the outcome which isn’t in your control then when things don’t go your way you will be upset and disappointed.
What you need to do is learn to be like water. Water whenever it comes up across a block it doesn’t stop it simply just flows around. And if it gets trapped then it simply sits and waits until a new passage opens up. When a new passage opens up then it dives in full force and follows the stream of life.
So in conclusion, be like water, flow with life, practice resiliency, and don’t be attached to the fruits of your actions. Simply act and be a participant in life because you’re here living and breathing and you have no other choice.
There is no need to resist life and there is no need to push it forward. Life will push you so there is no need to push yourself. If you want to stay where you are at then know you cannot. It will drag you. You can either ride on top of the wave of life and enjoy the scenery above water or you can toss and turn in the wave and get tumbled around. It is your choice.
Deepest Blessings and Pranamams to you All!
Mystic Eye
This blog post has been brought to you by our guest writer Mystic Eye
