FINDING STRENGTH THROUGH TRIALS

I have always been strong-willed and determined for as long as I can remember. Priding myself on my independence and strong persona has become my identity. I avoid asking others for help in an effort to show my self-reliance. That is me on the outside. On the inside, I have had my fair share of disappointment, loss, trials, and hardships. Finding strength through trials has been an ongoing journey. I do not walk this path alone and know of others who have experienced far worse.

Not too long ago I experienced the loss of a child. I am happy to share the compiled chapters that contribute to my story. If my story can uplift or help someone, I am more than happy to share the memories. The loss and devastation that I’ve experienced in my life have made me who I am today. I have become stronger and evolved through my losses and my failures, but I am NOT my trials and my failures. I am so much more.  

Sometimes we don’t have choices when it comes to our circumstances, but we have choices every day of how we want to think and act upon them. It’s human nature to be sad or mad when unfortunate things happen to us. We need to take time to feel our emotions regardless of what they are. Striving to have compassion for ourselves and process our feelings with as much time as we need is necessary for us to progress. Experiencing feelings both positive and negative is part of the process. It’s when we get stuck in negative or unpleasant emotions that it becomes detrimental to our growth.  

We have two choices, or mindsets, of how we can react when it comes to our circumstances. We can choose to have the thoughts that we are a victim, or we can choose to be a survivor. When we dwell in anger or sadness, it soon starts to consume us. Our thoughts, words, and actions echo our feelings. When this happens, negativity slowly erodes away at us. If we let it define us, we have become the victim of our circumstance. 

On the other end of the spectrum, if we choose to become a survivor we are refined into something better than we were before. By taking our hardships and learning from them, we turn them into a strength. We can transform the most tragic story of heartache into something with an extraordinary purpose. We consciously make a choice to become stronger, more compassionate, and understanding as we forge through the pain.  

I have a story that is not yet complete.  My story has a captivating beginning, a middle filled with joy and intertwined sorrow, and choose to make my ending exceptionally beautiful because I choose to be a survivor. How will your story end?