How else can I see this?

How else can I see this? That’s a question that I’ve learned to ask myself when I find myself in the middle of a difficult situation. There are always other ways to look at any situation, no matter how pressing it is. Do you believe that everything happens for you?

For the longest time, I would think only about how awful an unwanted situation was.

I found it really exhausting to sit in the energy of ‘what if’ and ‘how can I fix this?’. I would stay in that place for days sometimes before I would surrender to the fact that there was nothing I could do about it. Realizing that didn’t give me a sense of closure either. It simply kept me from obsessing about it.

Getting quiet and asking for answers is what gives me peace.

Even though the answers aren’t always what I expect or want to hear, I trust that it is what I need for my highest and greatest good.

Sometimes we don’t see what is right in front of us. Sometimes we are looking for an ‘easy’ way to get through things. Sometimes it’s simply that we don’t want to experience the lesson at hand. Sometimes it takes a long time for the blessings to be seen. I have experienced all of those.

I found myself in a situation a while back that I was sure that there was nothing to be grateful for.

I don’t like things forced on me; I like to decide for myself what I will or will not do. (Yes, I’m still recovering from being a control freak). It would have been easy to fall back into the victim mentality that influenced my life for a long time. Instead, I have learned to pause and ask, “How can I see the gift in this situation?” Then I get quiet and listen for the answer to come.

Those answers may come in a whisper, a thought that pops in my head, the words of a song I hear playing, the words of someone close to me, or the words of a total stranger. I trust that it will come and as long as I have awareness of what’s going on around me and I am open to answers that don’t make sense at the time, I will be shown the gifts that the challenge is hiding.

Often times I find that the gift is being able to look at the situation differently instead of the situation changing. Sometimes we can’t help but want a situation to change. Our real power, however, comes from changing ourselves.

When we change the world changes.