There is no way around it and neither is there a better way to put it. Life sucks sometimes. It does not matter how you dress it up or how many pretty words you use to sugar-coat everything; the fact of the matter is that when faced with hardships and life gets difficult, it becomes almost unbearable. Especially now with the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, when we step back and look at things from a different perspective, we see that good and bad come as a pair. We cannot have one without the other. It is the same with light and dark, life and death, black and white. These opposites of being manifest themselves in our lives as waves. Take for example good times and bad times. Within the good times, we experience bad moments and within the bad times, we experience good moments. This pattern of rough and smooth is just how life is. It is how it has always been, for everyone.
So then, how do we manage?
How do we approach the obvious fact that we experience pain and hardships in our lives?
Well, the first thing to do is accept and acknowledge that there will always be good and bad in our lives. After deeply understanding this, we can then begin to face up to things. Yes, you will experience negative thoughts, anxiety, and uncertainty which you cannot help. We are humans after all. Nonetheless, it is necessary for us to experience it. Without the lows, we would not appreciate the highs.
We need to always remember that adversity is inevitable, but we experience it most in our minds. Therefore, the mindset we take to life is what determines whether we suffer any more than we must. If we remember that we are here to live, to experience, to learn, and to trust His plan, then we realize that we are fully capable of handling anything that comes our way, even when it seems like there is no hope in sight.
The thing is, we neither can stop nor control adversities from happening, but we can deal with them, learn from them and even look at them as an opportunity to encourage those around us.
This article was written by Stacey Sian Keraiyian.