Look for the Hidden Blessings of Difficult Situations

The people whom I admire most in the world say without reservation that the hardest things they had to face, cancer, the death of a child, a bankruptcy, or job loss, had been their greatest teachers and that they were grateful for the lessons. For Rachelle it has been dealing with pain.

When Rachelle was a senior in college, she injured her back. It was the first time her body ever betrayed her. Until then, Rachelle always considered it just a handy container to take her mind where it wanted to go. However, suddenly she could not move, and she had to pay attention to it.

It has been twenty years since then, and her back continues to be one of her greatest teachers. Rachelle has learned a lot about patience (a hard lesson for her) and impermanence (just because it hurts like blazes today does not mean it will hurt tomorrow). Rachelle have learned the value of physical discipline ("No time to do those boring back exercises?" her body says, "I'll show you!"). Rachelle have learned that she cannot push herself beyond limits that often she still do not recognize until after she have exceeded them. That even doing everything "right" is no guarantee she will be free from pain. She have learned to let go of her wanting it to be better, and she have learned about how much she still exist even if she is able to do absolutely nothing. Now, in theory, Rachelle could have learned these things some other way, and perhaps she might have. Nevertheless, the truth of her life is that she has learned them through her pain -- and she is grateful for the lessons, if not for the pain.

Just a suggestion: write down the ten most difficult things that ever happened to you. As you look over the list, can you see the gifts that each of them brought? When you are suffering from some difficulty whose blessing is invisible to you, try saying the following: �I am willing to see the gift in this experience. May the lessons be revealed to me, and may I become stronger and clearer�.