Our lives all have different seasons and phases. Let’s face it, some phases of life can be more challenging than others.
Big life transitions—a move, a job change, kids moving out of the house, retirement—can all be challenging, even if we’re excited about those changes. Then there’s the harder stuff: illness, loss, divorce, times of financial struggle.
I believe in living a life focused on pleasure, growth and joy, and I believe those things expand the more we focus on them. However, sometimes our lives are just challenging, and the deepest growth, the most radical expansion of our capacity for joy, can come from navigating the challenging moments.
The thing is... in order to use the tough challenges to grow and evolve, we have to keep embracing life through it all. For me, how well I can embrace life during difficult moments is related to how well I take care of myself during those more challenging times.
Here are a few things I remind myself of when things get challenging...