Thankful for the bad experiences

Happy Thanksgiving! My favorite holiday. All of the food and feels, none of the shopping. 

Thanksgiving also offers an opportunity to think about the many blessings in our life. Often, we list what we call “good” things like supportive friends, loving family, the ability to pay our bills, and so on.

It’s important to recognize these wonderful blessings because what you focus on brings more of the same.

But what about the things in our life that cause us grief, stress, sadness? What about the experiences we have that we think of as “bad.” Can we be thankful for them as well?

We can, when we see how they benefit us.

Everything in life is an opportunity to see how it’s helping us so we can end a debilitating belief or pattern that keeps us stuck in fear and suffering. Everything in our life is something that’s been created by us whether we realize it or not.
 

Why should you find a way to count even the “bad” things in your life as a blessing?

Because it opens a part within you that starts looking at the experience differently. You are focused on the experience anyway which keeps it firmly in place bringing more pain--what you resist, persists. Why not try a new way of thinking about it?

Since January I’ve struggled with my health. Went to all sorts of doctors and healers, but wasn’t getting better. Finally, after 7 months of excruciating pain, I admitted something to myself that was scary: I might never get any better than where I was.

This led me to thinking about my life in a different way. A more expanded way. I began looking at all the ways I haven’t really been living fully and why. For me, this created a lot of sorrow. What was I so scared of?

Eventually, I realized that I was not living fully in every moment of my life. I had to see where I was holding back from moving forward because I was scared of rejection. Scared of changing what needed to be changed. And only I could do this for me.

So, I went to Ireland because that was where I knew I needed to be, and for once I listened and took action even though it was hard.

And after a painful depressing week in the Green Isle, everything changed. The swelling in my legs disappeared immediately once I let go of the false ideas I held about my life and what was happening in my life.

I didn’t realize I was carrying so much fear and once gone, a natural joy bubbled up through me that has been present within me ever since. I didn’t know that kind of joy was within me either. And I never would have chosen to go to Ireland or look at my life differently if it hadn’t been for all the struggles I went through this year.

This Thanksgiving and every day forward, I feel nothing but appreciation for my body and its messages, and all the pain, sorrow, and fear I faced. While in the “bad” experience I couldn’t see what an amazing blessing it was creating for me.

Can you be thankful for everything in your life simply because it is life moving through you, for you, and never against you even though you don’t always understand how? 

Much gratitude to you for being in my life, and I wish you awareness of all your blessings.

And as always, I’m available for private sessions if you need deeper understanding, support, or guidance in the form of energy work or intuitive life coaching. Click this link to schedule.