Hey, Hey my coffee loving ladies…..welcome to Emanating Sunshine with Lucy again where we talk Real talk.
Rushing and rushing and rushing Sunday thru Saturday. Sound familiar? I have to get up to exercise so that my body stays fit and healthy to keep up with life. I have to work 10 plus hours a day so that things don’t fall apart at work. I have to get the kids fed and homework finished so that we can run to a sports game or practice and back home in time to shower and get a good nights sleep. I have to make time for date night so that my marriage stays together. I have to make time for friends so that I have a social life. Boy I am sure I am missing something but how to wrap my head around what’s missing? Music! That is how we get through day in and day out. And a schedule of course because if it is not in my book it is not happening in my life.
My absolute favorite song to live by right now? Hard Days by Brantley Gilbert! If you haven’t heard it and really listened to it then you are missing out. This song resonates with every bit of my soul. Heartbreak….Yup. Rock bottom…Yup. Dancing in the rain…Mhmm. Moral of the song is we need to experience the bad to appreciate the good. If we never have anything bad happen in life the we would take for granted all the good life has to offer. It truly is a conscious decision to love life. The weight of the world can be on our shoulders and us being the fabulous woman, moms, wives that we are are bad ass and take it in stride. Remember that the average person lives 28,835 days which is about 692,040 hours in a lifetime. If you are lucky you will get that many days! Sit with that a minute and try to fathom why we would ever want to spend any of those minutes with regrets. Punch me in the Gut with those stats!
How do I want to spend my remaining hours cause shit I have done and used up more that half of them already? Do I want to sit in misery, unhappy, complaining, comparing, bullshit life? Heck NO! I want adventure, I want joy, abundance, daring, dreams coming true and I am headed after it all. Let’s head on these adventures together. Did you know that research shows that 70% of people show physiological growth from hard times?
Life lessons to be taught during hard times:
No. 1: Who your real friends are. One of the most difficult times in my life was battling breast cancer. Those true people who had my back were there for me day in and day out and the others fell off my to do list. No one needed to care, no one needed to acknowledge my battles, I never hold it against anyone for caring or not caring. We each have our lives to live and we each get to decide daily what to give our energy to. The people who gave me their energy, love and concern are my people who I deserve my time, energy, and love. The others i truly wish well I just don’t wish to spend my days and hours in this lifetime giving myself to them.
No. 2: How strong you truly are. Nothing builds strength like a difficult time. I have had many hurdles in life but let’s stick with the same story line of a hard time. Hearing that damn C word come out of a doctor’s mouth has to be one of the hardest most tear your heart out of your chest moments. I had my pity party, I had my anger party, and I got back up. Hard times show you how strong you are to get back up and show the world who is boss. Not going to get this chick down, i will fight as hard as I have to come out on top!
No. 3: What really matters in life. Amazing how difficult times can make you realize some of the little things don’t really matter….a tight schedule that can’t waver, a spotless sink without a dirty dish, a perfect image from the outside looking in. All those seem so insignificant in the grand scheme of life when you have dealt with the exhaustion of the C word or dealt with the unknowns of whether you really are free of the nasty shit or not. The things that matter are the things that stay, the solid stuff, the guarantee of life, love, and peace.
No. 4: How to be grateful. An amazing thing happens when you go through hard times, you find all the things in life you should be grateful for. The small things like the smell of coffee in the morning, the feel of a nice warm blanket out of the dryer, the sound of a child’s giggle…..all the little things you took for granted before going through hard times. There is a new light in life when you are on the other side of hardship.
These are the 4 lessons that have came out of some of my toughest hardships in life. These seem to be at the forefront of my mind but there are so many more that may resonate with you if sit with yourself and truly dig deep on your lessons during hard times. If today something opened your eyes to the beauty of hardship. If today something jumped to mind about hardship lessons. If today I enlightened you on the positives of hard time….give me a shout, I would love to hear from everyone on their own journeys through hardship and finding the good in the lessons.
Let’s learn through Hard Times together!