Why Being Grateful for Life’s Most Difficult Lessons Will Set You Free
Sometimes the harsh lessons in life can be the most rewarding
Life is crammed with harsh lessons, but what you do with them is up to you. You can gain valuable guidance from them. Or you can let them defeat you and resolve to be unhappy. Here’s why embracing life’s trials and opting for gratitude can liberate you.
Life is full of challenges. Perhaps a partnership ends, you must leave your job, or an illness renders you unable to enjoy a favorite hobby.
These moments test you and can teach you valuable life lessons when you pay them heed. But unfortunately, you may have a dim view of them and become bitter and resentful.
Life’s challenges strengthen you if you embrace them and uncover the hidden gems inside them. They increase your resilience because when a fresh ordeal arises, you look back and recognize you coped before and can do so again.
Difficulties seem hard at the time, but they can offer valuable insights that improve your wisdom and help you manage your future.
Here’s how being thankful for life’s most challenging experiences can set you free:
Self-Awareness expansion
When something negative happens, it’s easy to get wrapped up in critical self-talk. Instead of focusing on the potential wisdom that the life lesson brings, you may imagine you’re helpless.
But when you’re grateful for challenges, you’re self-aware and question your emotions if stress strikes. You embrace the emotional baggage that weighs you down, sift through it, and see your happiness increase.
Appreciation boost
When you face difficulties, you could get stuck in fight or flight mode and let stress mess with your ability to cope. You may be resentful, sad, or embittered about life if you can’t see your way out of a stressful rut.
Bitterness only sours the dish of life. Like bitter food without the contrast of a sweet dessert to follow, a bitter attitude becomes unpalatable and makes you want to choke.
But when you’re grateful for challenges, you’re more likely to be appreciative. You’ll relish the beauty of life and taste life’s sweetness with a positive frame of mind.
Resilience enlargement
Challenges are supposed to strengthen you, but some might make you want to crawl under the duvet and hide from life.
When this happens, you don’t want to meet problems head-on and prefer to pretend they don’t exist. You may choose to be like an ostrich and stick your head in the sand where you can’t see the hungry lion that’s about to devour you.
Take a moment to breathe deeply and connect with your emotions, and you can mentally detach from problems enough to see them through fresh eyes. Your gratitude will expand as you relax and realize you can cope.
Embrace gratitude rather than servitude for life’s challenges and break free. If you want to be happier, be thankful for what you have and for trials stuffed with sage-like offerings.
Bless the hard times, even if you can only do so long after they end, and rummage through them for gems to polish and cram in your knowledge chest.
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Bridget Webber is a writer and nature lover, often found in the woodland, meadow, and other wild places. She writes poetry and stories and pens psychology articles; her love of discovering what rests inside the thicket and the brain compels her to delve deep. She’s appeared in many leading publications and ghostwrites for professionals who can’t spare the time to pen compositions.
