Tag: Life’s Journey

Moving Forward

“Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?”

― Mary Manin Morrissey

         We often find ourselves saying it’s time to move on, that we’re ready to move forward toward something better. But yet we find ourselves stuck time and time again. Why? Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions. Maybe the right question is, “what is tethering us to our current situation…what is preventing us from leaping with both feet?” When you can answer these questions, you can begin to break free of the chains binding you to the past. In order to truly move forward, you must first release the pain and regrets of yesterday to make room for the rewards of tomorrow.

Play On

“Laugh, even when you feel too sick or too worn out or tired.
Smile, even when you’re trying not to cry and the tears are blurring your vision.
Sing, even when people stare at you and tell you your voice is crappy.
Trust, even when your heart begs you not to.
Twirl, even when your mind makes no sense of what you see.
Frolick, even when you are made fun of. Kiss, even when others are watching. Sleep, even when you’re afraid of what the dreams might bring.
Run, even when it feels like you can’t run any more.
And, always, remember, even when the memories pinch your heart. Because the pain of all your experience is what makes you the person you are now. And without your experience—you are an empty page, a blank notebook, a missing lyric. What makes you brave is your willingness to live through your terrible life and hold your head up high the next day. So don’t live life in fear. Because you are stronger now, after all the crap has happened, than you ever were back before it started.”

By Alysha Speer

        No matter what you’re going through in life, you always have to play on. Even when things are going horribly wrong, you can’t stop – you have to push through. Even when there is no hope, you have to carry on. No matter what storms life brings your way, you must continue to sing your song. For this is what it means to live and not simply exist.

Spread Your Wings

“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.”

― C. JoyBell C.

         Life isn’t about having all the right answers or having a roadmap to follow with turn-by-turn instructions. It’s meant to be a journey of discovery. One where you are meant to blindly choose a door and open it not knowing what lies on the other side. You can analyze a decision backwards and forwards but at some point you must take a leap of faith. Trust in yourself, spread your wings and let the winds take you where they may.

Follow Your Own Path

“I believe in going with the flow. I don’t believe in fighting against the flow. You ride on your river and you go with the tides and the flow. But it has to be your river, not someone else’s. Everyone has their own river, and you don’t need to swim, float, sail on their’s, but you need to be in your own river and you need to go with it. And I don’t believe in fighting the wind. You go and you fly with your wind. Let everyone else catch their own gusts of wind and let them fly with their own gusts of wind, and you go and you fly with yours.”

― C. JoyBell C.

        Each of us has our own path that we must walk alone. No two paths are the same. What’s right for you may be wrong for someone else. But it is important that you listen to your own inner voice, your own inner compass to steer you towards the trail that was meant for you to blaze. You have to block out the voices of the naysayers and those who will lead you astray. Because when it comes down to it, every person you encounter will likely have an opinion on how you should live your life. But in the end, the only voice that matters is yours. So make it count.

Shifting Your Perceptions

“We are happy when people/things conform and unhappy when they don’t. People and events don’t disappoint us, our models of reality do. It is my model of reality that determines my happiness or disappointments.”

― Stefan Zweig, Chess Story

        In life, we are so often disappointed and frustrated when things don’t go our way.  And when things start spiraling out of control and going sideways, it’s so hard to see outside your situation.  Sometimes circumstances can be so overwhelming that you just want to give up and throw in the towel.  But it is at these moments, you have to stop, take a deep breath and try to look at your situation from an outside perspective.  Then you can say, “Ok, so this is what I had hoped to happen, this is what actually happened, what can I learn from this not so great outcome, and what can I do to minimize any negative ramifications or how can I maneuver around this pothole.”  In this way, you are shifting your perception of disappointment or failure and are equipping yourself with better tools to handle life’s pitfalls.

Never Give Up the Fight

“No one can make you ‘better’ emotionally, mentally, spiritually or physically. You have to find this for yourself. You have to taste that brutal moment when you’re crying in a corner of the room, curled up on the floor and you think this is your end. You have to fight to stand up, literally. And you have to walk over to your reflection and scream, scream it all out. Then you have pick up your sword and fight and never quit. This is your life. Don’t let those bastards win.”

― Crystal Woods, Write like no one is reading

       No one else can fight your battles. No one else can bring you peace or happiness. All of these things you have to learn to do for yourself because it comes from within. For when you’re standing alone on the edge of a precipice, surrounded by darkness, broken and defeated…only you can decide that although the battle was lost and the winds threaten to overtake you, you will not give in – you will never give up the fight.

Your Future has Yet to be Written

“A bad beginning does not keep you from a good ending.”

― Matshona Dhliwayo

          You know the old adage that when it rains it pours. It often feels like things are doomed before they really start. But it is at these times you have to remind yourself that although you cannot change what has already been written, you can change what has yet to come….at any moment in time you have the power to decide this IS NOT how your story will end.

Confronting Your Inner Demons

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”

― August Wilson

       You can hide from everyone but yourself. No one is perfect. We all have flaws. We all have darkness within ourselves. The key is not to ignore these facets of our soul; rather, you must confront the dark parts of yourself and work to overcome your personal demons. You must work each day to be your highest self.

Life

Some Thoughts on Life by

Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

       Life isn’t meant to be a cake walk. It’s supposed to be messy, painful and downright heartbreaking. You are here to experience the joys AND heartaches of living. When you take chances, you will inevitably fall and stumble, but that’s part of your journey-your story. So, embrace the fact that life will remain a roller coaster that has its ups and downs, along with its twists and turns before you reach the end.

Don’t Give in to Disappointment

“Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it.”

-Eliza Tabor

         We are all faced with disappointment in our lives.  You cannot have hope without disappointment – as they are opposite sides of the same coin.  So, even though it hurts when you allow yourself to hope for something, for it not to happen, your spirit will not be destroyed.  Your spirit is more resilient than any disappointment or letdown you may face.  And each time you manage to stand up in spite of a setback, you become a little stronger and a little wiser.