Life Experiences that Uplift or Depress? Choose!

Whatever it is that comes from life’s journey, we have experiences, experiences that can be divided into two categories: uplifting or depressing. Yet all experiences can be uplifting, even the most painful ones, when we take the trouble to learn from them and to use the experience for the future (something I call “extracting the juice!). This turnaround in perspective from negative to positive is the hallmark of a truly healthy mind, body and spirit. It brings happiness and contentment, even in the most unlikely of circumstances and allows personal growth at a more accelerated rate that is possible when we simply dwell on our suffering.

Admittedly, it can take practice to do this effectively time after time, but it is worth the investment of effort in doing so, as it rewards us handsomely in that we can become unstoppable in the face of anything. It starts with gratitude: gratitude for things as they are, even for the lessons from painful experiences. For example, my losing everything I owned (two lovely homes and a business) nearly 8 years ago was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most painful experience of my life so far, yet I have gained so much from it that I wouldn’t swap that experience for anything, even though I was left having to rebuild my life virtually from scratch in my mid forties. I have grown enormously as a result of it: I have gained great understanding of myself and others and I have found peace and happiness at levels that I never thought possible. If I could bottle it to sell it, I would! Always someone inclined to look for the “silver lining” to every cloud, I have taken that attitude to new heights that brings acceptance of hardships as a potentially rich vein of golden experiences to be mined for all they are worth.

Expanding this attitude beyond previous levels came from both the experiences and consciously practising gratitude, listing (every night before going to bed) at least 10-20 things I can be grateful for that day, anything from the roof over my head to the food in my stomach, from my refrigerator that cools my drinks to the beautiful, sweet-scented flowers on the bush near my home. This exercise is particularly helpful when life occurs as hard with little to be thankful for. It heightens one’s sensibilities, one’s appreciation even of the small things that we tend to take for granted. It does not mean resigning oneself to what one has, without dreams of aspirations for something better, but it does involve enhancing one’s appreciation for the many wonders of life and the major reward for this is happiness in the moment, in the circumstances in life that you face right now, not at some nebulous future time that may never come.