"Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace"
thank you for asking my thoughts on this Seek as it has got me pondering, which brings growth yes? MG that is a wonderful explanation BTW!
i wasn't able to grasp this concept for a very long time but the fact that i wanted to made it important to me. the hardships of living with an addicted son just seemed to keep piling up and i struggled. i was angry much of the time, and scared and resentful and frustrated.....
i prayed and read and did meetings and counseling yet still struggled with acceptance. then my focus shifted to letting go. i began to see that i was nursing the negative feelings which the hardships i was dealing with brought up. so when something would happen the anger and sadness and madness were right there to access and i built on them...
so i worked on letting those feelings go. i acknowledged them, felt them but learned to let them go each time. then i worked on the resentment which was all those stored up negative feelings..... i began to have more clarity. learning to let go has been very powerful for me.
i then addressed acceptance again. kinda back and forth. i accept my son is an addict and it is his journey. not mine. my journey has become my focus... and i have let go, really let go of any belief that i can make him recover. i accept that all of this is hard, i let go of any angst about it and i have a peace deep within that i have never known.
i have been reflecting on this phrase -"Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace" - for many years. i am a recovering alcoholic and spiritually aware but the deep in the soul understanding of this alluded me. until i faced the hardship of not being able to help my child in a life or death struggle.
i now have a peace within that is just always there. doesn't mean i don't still struggle because i do. and it's been a long, hard year of addressing my part in this arena of addiction to get here. but i am beyond grateful for this peace within. and if it wasn't for the extreme hardships i've endured i would not have found the path.....
so now i understand. acceptance truly is the answer to all my problems today. it is what it is.....