The Yin and Yang of Life

This post is part of The Awakened Heart Project

Week 22 and 23: The Yin and Yang of Life  

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.”
-Gilda Radner 

Life Lesson 22: There is Still Fortune in Misfortune…If You Open Your Eyes! 

You’ve heard this metaphor before: You can’t control the storm, but you can learn to surf! That’s exactly what life is all about. It’s about enjoying the ride, -even the bumps. Take every obstacle in stride, and learn from every experience, -good or bad. You must remember, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT HAS TO FACE PAIN, OBSTACLES, FRUSTRATIONS, SADDNESS AND ANGER. Not a single one of us is immune to the ups-and-downs of life.

You might think that certain people have had made. That certain people have everything handed to them, or that they just lucky and don’t know the meaning of hard work or hardship. This may be true for a very small percentage of people walking this planet, but I know it is not for the majority. For most people, work was a very real part of their success. For most people, adversity, let downs, screw ups, and set backs, existed often on their life journey. There are more than a few people that even found themselves at a total loss and moving forward required completely starting over. It sucks, but life must go on, and so, it’s the only real option.

Karen Salmansohn, author of How to be Happy Dammit uses “The Fortune  500 Club” and “The Misfortune 500 Club” to help explain the differences between those that find success and happiness in life, and those that blame others for their misfortunes. In the book she writes: Every member of the Fortune 500 Club could be eligible for the membership of the misfortune 500 club. The only difference between these two is that those very successful people who are member of the fortune 500 club know that when/if you fall on your face, you must use the leverage to bounce back higher.

In this game of life, we often have the opportunity to try again, to get a fresh start and to change our minds. Albeit, it may come at an expense, but what doesn’t that isn’t worth having? It’s all about perspective. If at first you don’t succeed, try again…and again, and again, right? When things don’t go your way, is the glass half full or half empty? The half full folks, will see opportunity in their defeats. These folds will use the opportunities as a chance to dig deeper, to challenge themselves to try again, to use the less-than-opportune time to build strength, character and to learn from their mistakes.

Life is full of ups and downs. There is no denying it. Life can be difficult. There will always be pain, conflict, disappointments, “failures”, and generally evil in the world. We live in a world of Yin and Yang; of Good and Evil; of DUALITY. For every good thing that happens, something not soo good will probably happen. It’s a rarity that anything will ever work out exactly how you want it to. That’s just reality. But that doesn’t mean you have to suffer!  All you have to do is be prepared that this is reality and accept it!

Things brings us to the second half of this post…

Life Lesson 23: The World is Full of Uncertainty 

This Yin Yang world of ours is full of uncertainty. Just when you think things are going great, sometimes happens, and BAM! Just like that, you’ve been slapped across the face with the reality of imperfection! You never know when or where or how it will strike. Yet, it’s inevitable that it will. It’s simply a matter of time.

No matter what you do, there will never be a time when you will be able to predict future. You can try and plan ahead, but knowing that uncertainty will inevitably strike, executing your plan without error is near impossible. So what do you do? You accept that with the bad comes the good and vise versa. You accept that things change second to second and that many things are outside of your control. You accept that disappointments will arise and you welcome when as a chance to grow, and to change. You don’t try to control every aspect of everything thing around you because you know this will only create frustration and anger. YOU CANNOT CONTROL THE WORLD!

Furthermore, you must live in the present. To quote Salmansohn again, “You are a human BEING and not a human was or a human will be”. So let go of your need to control and stop ruminating about all of the endless possibilities that may or may not happen. When you hear yourself say, “I’m worried that …” or  “I can’t until…”, or “Someday I will…”, STOP! There will always be those “What if’s” in life, and there is nothing you can do to prepare for all of the “what if’s”. The only things you can prepare for is uncertainty. When you prepare for this, you wont be as shocked when it arrives, and this will make is much easier to cope. Not to mention, it will make it much easier to be present.

“If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.” 

-Anthon St. Maarten

Did you find this post inspiring / Thought provoking / Worth reading? Share it with your friends!

___________________________________________________________________________

The Awakened Heart Project 

Registration for The Awakened Heart Project is closed for the year. However, follow the blog for the opportunity to participate in 2014. With An Open Heart will be going through some major changes in the coming months! Stay tuned!!!

Please fill out the form below to be notified when The Awakened Heart Project will begin again. Thank you.