When Life Gets Tough — Try Looking at it Like This
Sometimes all it takes is a shift in perspective to see things differently when the going gets tough!
Have you ever gone through difficult times in your life? When it feels like you are wrestling with a Wild Bull on your own and you seriously start to question the reason for your whole existence?
Most of us have at some point and it can be quite devastating at the time.
You can feel overwhelmed with feelings of hopelessness, despair, and frustration. These feelings can even lead to serious depression and physical illness.
When those times come, we need to shift our perspective to give ourselves a lifeline of hope.
Here is a simple but effective mind shift you can try when life get’s tough.
Remember the Principle of Rhythm
Here’s how it works.
Most likely whatever struggles you are going through right now your life has not always been this way. Which means your whole life has not been bad, just this moment, and before this moment things were maybe good, or at least better than now?
This is because everything in the nature of life has a rhythm.
Nothing in life ever remains the same forever. The only permanence in life is change and change works in rhythms. It has an ebb and flow to it, as soon as you are up you must come down.
This means whatever you are going through right now, is going to change at some point.
What is the Principle of Rhythm ?
The Principle of Rhythm is one of the 7 Great Hermetic principles, a philosophical and esoteric tradition based primarily on the laws of nature.
This knowledge is not new and it has been around for thousands of years in one form or another.
Natural law is an observable law relating to natural phenomena. The Natural Law of Rhythm can be observed in the cycles of nature like the night and day, the ocean tides, the seasons, birth, death and rebirth!
Understanding this law means knowing we can accept the way things are right now with the knowledge that things will get change. It means stop fighting the nature of life because the nature of life can be hard and can be easy.
The thing is that we often get trapped by our emotions with the way things are right now, but when you look at your life over a period of time you can see these rhythms and cycles in perspective.
Life is not one continuous plateau of happiness or sadness no matter who you are.
It is a mixture of up’s and down’s and often just when we think we are winning, life will throw out a curve ball. Then, just when you think you are losing, something amazing can be waiting right around the corner.
How to make the hard times feel less uncomfortable
Hard times are never comfortable but you can use a little mental alchemy with the principle of rhythm that can make going through the hard times a little easier.
Now this is one of those lifehacks that is often considered controversial in some circles.
Techniques like these were known as Hermetic formulas by the ancient Adepts, and have also been used by Buddhists, Taoists and Zen monks in the East for thousands of years.
The formula…
The formula is to practice a form of detachment so that your feelings of suffering do not control your behavior. When things are down do not allow the situation to keep you down and control your emotions.
However this does not mean deny reality or suppress your emotions!
With the Eastern Philosophy of Taoism the Taoist Masters recommend us to ‘go with the flow’ and to not resist the reality of our life. This is what the term going with the flow actually means because Taoist philosophy is based on the natural laws of nature.
In Buddhist vipassanna meditation, you are encouraged to practice meditating through physical and mental discomfort in order to practice becoming detached from it.
This practice does not ask that you pretend the discomfort does not exist but rather, to acknowledge it and then transcend it.
This is the example of accepting things as they are. Acknowledging the discomfort but also being detached from it’s effects.
This does require a mental toughness that will increase with practice.
However, it is not good to repress emotions as we often need to express our negative feelings responsibly so we can clear them and remain detached.
The situation may still be the same but if we can clear the energy of emotional negativity we can have a greater level of acceptance, detachment and clarity.
So you need to find a way to manage negative emotions and feelings.
There are many techniques to do this from meditation, cathartic release, EFT, energy clearing, all of which can be effective and will depend on the individual.
To Sum up
The Art of Life when Life gets hard is to go with the flow and accept reality as it is, by taking comfort from the knowledge that by virtue of the principle of rhythm things will change and get better again.
Acknowledge, and manage emotions effectively so they don’t control us and prolong the negative state any longer than is necessary.
A story of encouragement…..from George Lucas
A good example of riding out the rhythm of change is that of George Lucas when he was trying to make the first Star Wars movie.
Lucas faced some ridiculous problems that almost stopped the film even being made! Many people do not realize that before Lucas made Star Wars he had become quite a success with a movie called “Amercian Graffiti”.
When Lucas was hunting for finance to make his Star Wars movie he later revealed that nobody at the time really believed in the movie. The studios didn’t like it and thought it would never be a success.
When he did finally get financing he had a ridiculously low budget and had to cut his salary by 300% and use all sorts of other shortcuts to get the movie made how he wanted it.
During the production the movie was beset by technical disasters and nobody liked what they were making including the actors who all thought it would be a massive failure. Lucas even had to resign from the Directors guild over the opening credits and was close to a nervous breakdown.
When the film finally premiered it was only shown in 35 theatres and on one of the worse days of the year to premiere a film.
Of course we all know what happened after the film was released and this is one of those incredible Life Lessons.
Lucas never gave up.
Do you think he may have been experiencing the principle of rhythm in his life?
For Personal Growth & Self-Mastery in Daily Life
My blog DJ Hopkins covers 3 main pillars for personal growth and self-mastery in life. Meditation — Knowing Yourself — Understanding Reality.
