Category Archives: Adversity

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What To Do When Things Don’t Seem To Be Working Out

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things not going your way 2This is continuation (of sorts) on this week’s post on How You Handle Adversity. Hopefully, if you handle that adversity well, it won’t get to this stage. But remember that perception is reality and if you don’t think things are going well or working out for you, they won’t be.

However, many years later you may reflect back on that time and realize that everything worked out perfectly and as it was supposed to. You could say that that’s quite a fatalistic approach to things but I don’t think so. I do believe we can make everything better even “on the fly”.

I look back at many times in my life where I thought “the end is here” (in my youthful dramatization) and several years later I understood that everything worked out exactly as it should. I think that happened because I tried to just march right through those events and make the most of them and then forget them. I tried not to dwell on any bad event for very long. This was way before I knew anything about metaphysics.

There was an easier way though – had I known.

Remember in my Terrie’s Trek Across Tennessee report how I recognized how important it is to stay present and stay IN the present. By doing that you avoid the “what if” this or that happens? When you enter into the “what if” mode, you can come up with all sorts of bad things….you can also come up with all sorts of good things if you come at it from a different approach. This is one of Abraham’s techniques that is excellent and helps you get into the proper vibration.

I am currently dealing with that “Things Don’t Seem To Be Working Out” scenario regarding my feet. It’s been way too long since the end of the race and I should have healed faster. After all, almost everyone else who participated in the event has been out running races already. I can still barely walk even though all this time has passed since it ended. Initially I was very worried. Worried that I would never be able to run again. I was obsessed with this. You see, running is one of the most important things in my life. And there would be a great void if I weren’t able to do it any longer. And then, there’s the “what am I going to do for exercise and keep the weight off” issue that always permeates a girl’s spirit and soul.

When I wrote my report and when I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by two folks, I really began to realize that these injuries are a gift. Often times we don’t know the meaning or value of a gift when first given but it later becomes apparent. I started to see how this problem was doing more for me than rapid healing would have done.

I was seeing how so many disabled people have to live every moment of every day. The empathy (and sympathy) I was garnering for them was of great value even though I’m not yet certain of how I will apply the info. I just know that I was meant to experience this and become aware.

I was also forced to realize that my life is too shallow. That I need to find other outlets and valuable ways to fill my time. My coaching program will be an excellent example of that. And I could be getting ready for it now while I’m healing. In other words, I do not have any excuse right now for not working on it since I can’t be out running.

I have much more time for my writing too. There are the two books that I’m working on. I have no excuses really but my procrastination has continued despite having the time.  Still have to figure that one out.

I started reading again too. I haven’t done that in a very long time. I especially am getting into the two books Ben exposed me too during the run. I have started “Infinite Jest” and am enjoying working my way through it. And of course, James Patterson came out with a new book right at this great time.

I’ve also learned more about essential oils. I was very interested in them before but now am working on the right combination for pain and inflammation. This has been a terrific exposure since I am much better at the “see one, do one, teach one” mode. If I can see the results (on my feet) then I can remember the techniques and combinations better in order to impart my knowledge to others.

For, I have realized that my role in life is to learn things and pass them on to others.  Just as we talk about needing to keep money in circulation (buying and selling vice saving and stuffing your money away) is the way to absolute abundance, the same goes for all we learn. It does no good to just learn something and store it away. We are compelled and obligated to pass it on to others. The human race is a social race and it is our responsibility to keep it that way despite all the dependence and reliance on technology.  What have you learned that you can pass on to others?

The attitude with which you view your situation is the key point in how they will turn out. If you view each problem with the “what am I learning from this?” or “what can I learn from this?” and “how can I apply this in my life for the best?”, you will have raised your vibration and you will be searching for the solution.

Remember to focus on the Solution, not the problem! If you focus on the problem(s), you will receive more of the problem and more of that attitude. But if you focus on the solution, you’ll raise your vibration and you’ll be on a different plane than problematic thinking and you’ll be much more likely to attract the solution and all the benefits.

When things don’t seem to be working out, just tell yourself that they will work out the way you shape them no matter what. The Law of Attraction is always working. You just have to manage it and turn your attitude and beliefs about this current situation into whatever positive you can. It’s not a “pollyanna” approach. It’s just accepting that you created the situation and now it’s your responsibility to accept it or shape it into something useful and valuable. You do that via your attitude and belief.

What’s going on in your life now? How can you view it differently? Let us know in the comment section. Repeat this phrase endlessly – “Everything always works out for me!”

Terrie

 

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How Do You Handle Adversity?

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adversity2When adversity comes your way, you have choices. “What?” you say “What choices are there. I’d pick no adversity but it’s too late.”

Sure, that’s the ideal – to not have adversity in our lives but when it does come what you do with it, how you handle it can be more valuable than any lottery winning you could dream of. No, I’m not smoking dope. I’m serious.

What you learn, how you act will shape you for the rest of your life. It will give you support and foundation for handling what else might come in your life. You want to make the most of it.

It’s difficult to experience the adversity and it’s often more difficult to watch someone you care about go through adversity but there are definitely things to learn from these experiences.

So what are your choices? You can send the invites to your pity party and see who will come to join you in the “festivities” (and for how long – that’s the key and what are these folks bringing to the table in terms of your growth and health).

Your other choice is to learn the most from the experience. Go inside yourself, start a journal, ask yourself – “what am I supposed to learn from this?” or even “What can I learn?”.

Remember the phrase “What you resist, persists!” I think this is a very important phrase to continually remember. Stop resisting what’s staring you in the face. Embrace it – it’s here so your choices are to resist it or to embrace it. It will last a much longer time if you resist it and who wants that. The more you fight something, the more it fights back. Then you have to expend more energy to try to even keep it at bay.

If you embrace the adversity, make the most of it, perhaps change your course for a bit, it will simply run its course and then pass as it’s supposed to.

If you are experiencing financial issues, maybe you’re supposed to learn more about the Law of Attraction (I will be saying that about everything because learning about the Law of Attraction and how to use it to improve your life is a goal you should hold high). This means that you have to focus on what you believe, not what you don’t want or what you think you’re supposed to want. You have to examine your beliefs and see what brought you to that point. Then you can work on changing those beliefs in accordance with where you really want to be. Don’t wallow in debt and “poor me”. Pick yourself up by the bootstraps, look around you and see how you might be able to get out of that hole and start bringing abundance and prosperity (of all types, not just financial) to you. Who are you meeting along the way? What gifts do these people have to offer you? Even more importantly, what gifts do you have to give them? Is there someone in your surroundings now that might need your help? I don’t mean financial help. I mean just being there, being supportive, listening to them, caring about them, etc. Remember the posts about how you make someone feel is what they will remember about you. Maybe you are to discover a group of people you’re supposed to work to support when you get out of that rut. You might be making life long friendships. Wouldn’t it be great if you could actually help/influence someone to change their life, to embrace the Law of Attraction and understand it to change their life? How would that make you feel? I could go on and on but you get the idea. There is so much good that really can come from embracing the financial adversity.

Perhaps your adversity is in the health arena. What is the health issue trying to get you to see about yourself or your surroundings? Is there something in adversityyour  life that you need to change? Are you working too hard? Under too much stress? In a toxic environment? Not able to give enough time to those who love you? Is this problem trying to get you to slow down or stop doing what you’re doing in excess and smell the roses as they say? Maybe this health challenge is trying to get you to expand your horizons or change what you focus on the most. You can sit there and bemoan how bad you feel or how you can’t do what you really want to do — or you can sit there and say “ok, I can’t do x, y, z which I really love. But there are other things in life that I can do. What am I supposed to be paying attention to?” Perhaps you should read more, sleep more, write more, engage with others (family or friends) more…..Your health is telling you to slow down and reassess. When we’re going 100 miles an hour we don’t take the time to even think about where we are or where we’re going. Perhaps we should be trying to figure out what others are experiencing multiplied many times over. As I’ve told people before, I’m very glad I smoked, was very overweight and have epilepsy – why? Because as a physician I understand my patients a great deal more and can help them deal with some of these problems in a different way than those who just read about it in a book. The more we experience in life, the more we can reach out to help others and really identify with them – what do they say “walk a mile in my shoes”. This is the Universe’s way of helping you get in those shoes.

Maybe the overriding lesson in whatever adversity you come across is to teach you that it’s ok and human to ask for help. I know that’s a difficult lesson for me but one that adversity has recently taught me.

Remember, most of all, though, that we have attracted this adversity. That’s so hard for people to accept but it’s true. Just as you can work with the Law of Attraction to bring you great things, the negative things are brought to us by that same Law of Attraction. The most important lesson in adversity is to dig deep and find out what beliefs are in you that have caused you to be on the vibrational plane to draw this to you. That’s the thing you should always be working with as well as trying to figure out what other lessons there are in this adversity.

Take a look at what’s happened in your life and see what you can come up with.

Terrie

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Be Present

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Be present 4 - not animatedAnother important thing I learned in my “Tennessee Trek” was the importance of “being present”. I will explain in a moment but wanted to let you know that I’m not just writing these things because I’m “filled” with my adventure but because I think they are important issues for us all to embrace and consider. So often, we look at things or hear phrases (like “epic” and “awesome”) and we don’t think about what the words really mean. I would still write these posts even if I didn’t tell you that they came from Vol State (the official name for my Tennessee Trek).

“Being present” is one of those phrases for me. I would hear it a great deal (especially in the mind-body-nutrition/psychology of eating course I’m taking – more to come about that later in the summer). But even though I professed to believe it, I didn’t really absorb what it meant. I could intellectually take it on as mine but until it’s emotionally adopted, the true meaning is lost.

While being so alone on the road in Tennessee, I was able to experience one part of the meaning of “Be Present” – being with yourself. Other than the minute or so I interacted with my crew guy (good ole Marvin – I bet he wished it only were a moment or two), I was with myself most of 5 or 6 of the 10 days.  When you have no one else to interact with, you’re forced to examine yourself and discuss things with yourself – even if it’s just the cacophony of sounds you hear. I had many conversations at night about how it was the “country” and I didn’t think it wasn’t supposed to be so noisy in the country. And you don’t want to know about my conversations with the Roosters…..LOL. So, I learned to go deep inside many times. Sometimes that was painful but most of the time it was illuminating and I’m grateful for that time. I hope I can do it next year (still very doubtful that I can but I want to….only if Diane is there though) so that I can do even deeper.

The other (and I think more important) part of “Being Present” is living in the now. As I was trying to make it through the painful days, I realized that it was doing no good to “hope” for the finish or think about the 10th day or the finish or going home or anything like that. If anything, all that would have done is create more discouragement and depression since I would then be thinking about something that was a long way off. Why do that to myself? I found out that it was more useful to simply think about what was going on right now all around me and concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. It didn’t matter how many more miles there were to go. If I was going to finish this – and I was determined to do so until the last 16 miles – it was going to require that I just concentrate on continuing to move forward. So I paid attention to moving my feet and legs and then to the surrounding area and its beauty. I only wish I had had my camera with me (additional weight – ugh) and had time to stop and take photos. I was so pushed for time that I didn’t even feel comfortable stopping to take the photos (if I get to do this next year, I should use the GoPro like Dave did –
Click Here to Play Video

video of our experience if you’re interested) even for a short time. Too much pressure I put on myself but as you can tell by my finish time, there was very little time to spare.

I became completely aware that the past has already happened and there is nothing that can change it. All that can be done with the past is to savor it or to learn from it. That is the big advantage if you can look at the past objectively and see what there is to learn, if anything. And even more acutely I absorbed the fact that the future will never come. Why sit around and say “when I finish, this will happen or I’ll feel that…etc”. Do it NOW. I’ve been learning that in the psychology of eating course but it really hit home those 10 days. Since I’ve been home I’ve applied that principle too whenever I’ve thought something negative was going to happen in the future. I then center myself and bring myself back to the present and simply say “be present” and “be in the present”. That has prevented negative vibrations and thoughts from persisting.

I’m so grateful I had this experience for many reasons and this is one of the most important lessons. What if something happens? Tomorrow won’t get here so why think about it. Try to live the fullest you can right now!

Think about this and see where you’re living. Do you use the “When this happens, I’ll feel that?” or “When this happens, that will happen?” The most common expression of this is how we experience our work week. What does everyone say on Monday (and then every day after) “I can’t wait til Friday” or “2 more days til Friday” or something similar. Why not live EACH and every day to the fullest. It’s all you really have. It’s ok to have goals but work on things that will make you happy each day while you are achieving different parts of the goal. Rejoice in them. Rejoice in whatever you experience each day – gratitude will bring more of whatever you’re grateful for.

Try it. It will make you a different person!

Terrie

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Momentum Monday

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momentum-monday1“There are always those who thrive when masses are dying of sickness. There are always those who thrive economically when economic decline seems to be the order of your nation. There are always those who are clear-minded in environments of confusion. You do not need everyone or anyone else to align with your desire—only you need to align with your desire.” ~Abraham [Excerpted from the workshop: San Francisco, CA on March 08, 2003]

This is such an important concept in this day and age! We have to stop looking around us and comparing ourselves to others or worse yet, judging our chances by the success or failure of those around us. You cannot make any determinations from outward appearances. Abraham here is really talking about your vibrations and those of others. The person who succeeds has the greatest vibration and will succeed no matter what people all around him (or her) do, no matter what the economic circumstances are.

The masters of New Thought/Metaphysics have preached this for the longest while. It’s all about what’s inside of yourself and where your vibrational plane is. The higher the plane, the more successful you’ll be. The more you feel that the outside world governs what happens to you, the more you’ll flounder around on the waves letting the elements control your life.  That is NOT what you want. You want to control your own life. You do not want to be tossed about trying to reach here and there to find something to grab on to. You want to plot your own course on the sea of life!

Put your blinders on and steer yourself along your own path. Do not let anyone or anything get in your way. If you run into an obstacle, you probably attracted it so obstacle_course_boot_camp_400_clr_11454think of it as a personal creation and see how you can jump over it and make your road even smoother.  The people who fail in life look at the obstacles as if someone else placed them in their path instead of recognizing that they, themselves, attracted them and therefore they serve some purpose. It’s your task to figure out why you brought this obstacle into your way and then what the purpose of it is and how to use it to your advantage. Don’t think of it as anything negative or bad. It’s not. Remember that everything is about perception and if you perceive an obstacle as insurmountable, it will be. If you look at it as an opportunity, it will be!

Your success is NOT dependent upon anyone else. Never think that. It’s all about you and how you use the Laws of the Universe!

Terrie

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Why Your Worst Deeds Don’t Define Your Life

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I thought this was a very profound TED talk. It made me think about how people can change and how we really should be willing to give people (whether in jail or not) more than one chance to redeem themselves. After all, who died and made us God that we can judge someone forever and not think that they might change.

Wouldn’t you want someone to give you a second chance in life if you did something “wrong” but then realized it. We all have been young and done stupid things – some more stupid than others. But as we grow, we change and we become more mature (eventually anyway). Do you think we should be evaluated just based on the stupid thing we did years ago? Of course not. That’s what life is all about…change.

This man talks about acknowledgment, apologizing and atonement. I think he’s more mature than most of us and has endured more than we will in our entire life.  We can be better people by learning from the tough times others experience.

If you like this, there is another profound video on the TED talks about women Lifers and it almost made me cry at the misfortune some of them have endured for over 30 or in some cases 40 years – being in prison for that long is just unimaginable to me.

Let us learn from others.

Terrie