Have you ever experienced an incredibly stressful time in your life? A situation that you feel you couldn’t get over? We have all felt that way from time to time. When you are ‘in it’ it feels like it’s never going to end, that you can never get over it. But then you do. Things pass and you recover and learn from whatever experience you went through. Recently I have been going through a bit of stress and have been having trouble ‘getting over it’. I take things to heart and sometimes I let things eat me up inside. I need to learn to let go and accept that whatever the situation is, it is happening to me, and I have to deal with it. The saying, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” is commonly used but what does that really mean? Have you ever stopped to think about it? I guess it is true. If something doesn’t kill us then it is an experience that we’ve had to deal with and have gotten through and survived, which makes us stronger and more aware or more savvy because of that experience. Because of this issue I have been having I have had to find an inner strength to deal with it. It has made me feel crappy and has taken over my daily thoughts. And that sucks! I wish I could turn off my emotions and not let things bother me. But that isn’t a reality that is true to me or most of us out there dealing with this crazy thing called life. We have to deal with stress and bumps in the road. This is the reality.
In my search to find something that can help me ‘deal’ with my stress I came across a passage from the philosopher Nietzsche. His thoughts on this certain matter has helped me feel better and more able to ‘cope’ with the crappy feelings I am having. I have read this passage over and over again over the past few weeks and I can tell you that I feel better after reading it. For this reason I wanted to share this with you. I hope if you are having a bump in the road or stress along the way that you can take some comfort in this passage:
“At a certain moment in Nietzsche’s life, the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the heck happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment – not discouragement – you will find the strength is there. Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not.”