Welcome back, everyone. For me, it's been a frenetically crammed-tight month or so. Having leaped right into taking a full course load of online classes, with a seven-month-old baby, was certainly ambitious, to say the least! Now that my most intense, super-condensed class has ended (I got an A!!), I feel I have a little bit more breathing, and thinking, room.
Over time, and after many difficult and painful past Life Lessons (in my more recent past, not about past lives), I have learned that, when things feel overwhelmingly difficult, or unpleasant, the operative question to inwardly ask is: What am I supposed to be learning right now? Because you know what? Asking that question is always the beginning of the end of that painful, overwhelmed state of being. As soon as you've asked the question, you've shifted your focus away from "why, why, why" and over to "what, what, what...can I do to create a positive change here?"
Sometimes, you may realize your priorities may be slightly different than you may have thought. Sometimes, you may realize that you either need to change what you're doing, or to realize that a given situation is temporary, and that you'll need to work on identifying and using your tools; your knowledge of the things, environments, and activities which nourish and sustain you.
When I entered into this reflection and thinking space most recently, I realized that I am going to be in school for a pretty long time - if I stay as stressed-out as I was my first few months, I won't make it. Therefore, I'd better work on changing my mindset, and on identifying and making good use of my tools, pronto, because I've got a long way to go.
How many of us say, "Oh, I'll be okay when I get this job, or promotion, or when this boss moves on, or when I move away from that neighbor, when my health insurance kicks in, when I get a significant other, etc, etc? Pretty much everyone, I think. The problem with thinking in the future tense is that the future never gets here. It's always and perpetually now. So, if you keep giving yourself the message that you can't be happy in the now, because you're, to some extent, waiting for a future event, your happiness will always be out of reach, located beyond your grasp, in Tomorrowland (complete with dated Flying Cars Of The Future rides).
Sometimes, dissatisfaction with the now indicates that a change must be made, in order to make the now a better place in time to inhabit. It may be beneficial to ask yourself, "What would need to be different, for me to be willing to invest my happiness right here in the now? What would I need to change about the now, to make it more fun to be in?" Maybe you need more music in your life. Maybe you need to get outside more, get some nature in your day.
Whatever you discover, please take the time (so to speak) to explore what you can change to make now a truly delightful place for you to be. Because now is all we ever really have.
