How to Overcome a Setback

You are driving down the Pacific West Highway, feeling the wind in your hair and listening to your favorite tunes all while admiring the beautiful blue ocean. Life is good; you feel content with not a care in the world. Then, all of the sudden you get a flat tire and your perfect scenario turns into a not so perfect hot mess, with you having to figure out how to fix a flat tire.

Scenarios like these are a common occurrence in this beautiful existence called life. The minute we feel like things are going good, all of the sudden the exact opposite happens and we find ourself down in the dumps; caught up in a storm. How do we recover? How do we overcome it? How do we move beyond what we are going through so we can feel better and be ourself again?
Shift the focus from what has gone wrong to what has gone right. Every situation, opportunity or event comes bearing lessons to learn, something to grow from. When you can stop looking at it as an attack on you; you stop trying to make it your story and give it life by drowning yourself with compulsive thoughts that are far from helping you. Your thoughts create a spiral affect and you begin to get caught up in very powerful emotions that start to eat you from the inside out. In moments like these its so crucial to bring it back to the breathe, focusing on your inhalation and exhalation, but also surrendering to what the moment holds for you. Embrace it. Accept it. Sit with it. Let it be. Don't shun it. Don't shun yourself nor beat yourself up. Open up your heart to send love and compassion to those parts of you that strongly feel troubled; they need it now. Only with love and compassion towards yourself can you begin true healing and open up a doorway to understanding what your feelings are trying to tell you. Once you can accept that your feelings always work for you; not against you, you will allow room for new a perspective to enter. Choosing to see something beyond its actuality; is choosing to see it down to its barebones, because the obvious isn't always subtle or easily identifiable. It may take some time to pin point where the tension lies, but remember to uncover anything you have to be willingly go deeper, go inward.
By taking the initial responsibility to embrace the moment as it is; you can welcome space into your being to move forward from a place of calm and peace. Remember its not about how well you can avoid the storm, but how well you can deal with it.