Change what you can change
My friend Anna shared with me the following poem - which can also serve as a prayer - to help me cope with the cancer diagnosis. While it frames every challenge, it has re-focused me again and again:
Accepting what we don’t like, may be one of the most difficult aspects of life. I’m all for taking action and changing what we can, but inevitably there will be people, situations, and events we don’t like and that we aren’t able to change. Despite accepting that there are things beyond our control, it does not mean to resign and give up, instead we can push forward and try different ways.
Letting go of hurt, pain or the past is necessary to get to a level of content acceptance. And once you get over the hurdle, once you accept what you cannot change, you realize: It's so much better to push yourself and NOT hold on to things that you no longer respectively never have control over. It's so much more fulfilling to direct your energies to the things you can change, trying to build something new and setting yourself new, different goals that are worth pursuing.
I know from my very own experience that your inner-self might be tempted to pick up old pain and burdens that have weighed you down, going in circles and over-thinking matters that depress you. Part of the acceptance process is learning new ways to cope with the issue and with crisis moments in general. Keeping your emotions in check is important so you can make a more conscious decision about how to deal with the issue.
To manage emotions, it might help to remember that: every feeling is thought .....just a thought that will pass.... like water that passes beyond the bridge.
So in a nutshell: Life is filled with ups and downs. Cherish what you have and be content where you are while working to get where you want to go.
