Where do you go when life shows it\u2019s jagged edges, and impossible scenarios?\u00a0 Often times in the face of pain or fear, we look for the easy button.\u00a0 You know, the button that Staples has made famous.\u00a0 Just press that button and all the problems of life will fade away.\u00a0 Perhaps that button for you is alcohol, pornography, an unhealthy relationship, or isolation.<\/p>\n
M. Scott Peck, in his best selling book The Road Less Traveled<\/em>, outlines the core problem that all of humanity faces: \u201cLife is difficult.\u201d\u00a0 A simple phrase containing three words sums up life pretty well, but wreak havoc on countless people on a daily basis.\u00a0 While life will always be difficult, it doesn\u2019t have to be unbearable.<\/p>\n We want an escape, a place to go when it seems that all hell is breaking loose in our lives.\u00a0 We want to go back to where life felt peaceful, serene, and calm.\u00a0 The problem is that when we escape to find this \u2018better place\u2019 we refuse to face the realities of life.\u00a0 And when we run from our problems, our fears and anxieties grow stronger and stronger which leads to more coping and medicating.\u00a0 The spiral gets darker and darker, until the bottom falls out.<\/p>\n The most difficult, but most promising, path from the difficulties in life is the path directly into the pain and fear.\u00a0 Most of the time, this feels counter-intuitive.\u00a0 We\u2019re afraid of things, people, and situations for a reason, that\u2019s why we run and medicate from them.<\/p>\n Remember Frodo from Lord of the Rings?\u00a0 No amount of man made strength could destroy the one ring.\u00a0 There was no place that they could hide the ring.\u00a0 Frodo and his companions had to take the ring back to where it was birthed … and to get there his journey was perilous.<\/p>\n For you and I, our journey is sometimes perilous.\u00a0 We have to walk the road back into our story, to relive, re-experience, and reenter some dark places.\u00a0 The road to freedom is through the valleys, deserts, and the very shadows of death.\u00a0 Like Frodo, we cannot go at it alone.<\/p>\n First and foremost; Hurt people, hurt people.\u00a0 You might have to say this aloud a couple of times to get the meaning, but those who are hurting will often hurt others.\u00a0 You have to deal with your own hurt before you can help others.<\/p>\n Secondly, you cannot change for others.\u00a0 Often times participants of our groups will only be there because a significant person in their life asked them to attend.\u00a0 While this is a good first step, inevitably this ends with disappointment because we cannot live others\u2019 lives.\u00a0 We must value ourselves, our goodness, enough to make the change not only for the benefit of others but for our own benefit.\u00a0 Sometimes, this can be the hardest to address because most of us do not have a history of being valued and loved.<\/p>\n Thirdly, spend some time reconsidering what the golden rule really means.\u00a0 Treat others as you would treat yourself is quite possibly the only relational advice that any of us would ever need.\u00a0 The problem with this advice is that often times if we treated others the way we truly treat ourselves, we\u2019d be without completely alone.\u00a0 Do you heap an abundance of condoning insults at your friends or family members when they mess up or do something that was \u2018stupid\u2019? Likely your answer is no.\u00a0 But when you mess up, you probably treat yourself in no similar fashion that you do with your friends.<\/p>\n Lastly, do not go about your journey alone.\u00a0 As the great philosopher Plato once said, \u201cbe kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.\u201d We are all wrestling, fighting, and struggling, and we don\u2019t need to go about it alone.<\/p>\n New beginnings are here today, will you grab hold?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Where do you go when life shows it\u2019s jagged edges, and impossible scenarios?\u00a0 Often times in the face of pain or fear, we look for the easy button.\u00a0 You know, the button that Staples has made famous.\u00a0 Just press that button and all the problems of life will fade away.\u00a0 Perhaps that button for you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theory"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n