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Shift Your Perspective

We all have certain times in our lives where we feel stuck and can’t seem to find our way out. In fact, those experiences, especially when they last a while, can take us into a feeling of hopelessness. We wonder if we will ever find our way out. Pema Chodren speaks so beautifully to this from a buddhist point of view. She says in Tibetan, there is an interesting word ye tang che which translates to “totally tired out” or “totally fed up”. In my personal life, I have experienced this a lot over the last 3 years.

When we are in pain, we often want to run towards pleasure. For me, living in Boulder, Colorado, I was able to hide from a lot of the pain and suffering I had inside. I hid behind the facade of being healthy, eating organic food, practicing yoga, having a sweet home, starting a family and living a social. When a health crisis hit in my family and my life began to “fall apart”, I realized I was using all of it to run from all the pain that was underneath. I was ye tang che….,exhausted!!!!

When I became aware enough to understand that this feeling of hopelessness was actually the beginning of the beginning, as Pema puts it, I started trusting that I could rise out of this chaos that kept playing out in my life and relax into where I was. I could see the great teaching that was in front of me and that I no longer had to play out these patterns. The choice was mine and it was a moment of truth I will never forget. I realized that my perception was everything and that I could always shift my view point in every situation.

It’s a daily practice and I still going into places of feeling hopeless, especially when it impacts my personal life, but it’s less and less as time goes on. I understand what I have control over and what I don’t. I spent far more time in grief and suffering than one needs to and learned the hard way that there is always choice. I am now way more compassionate towards myself and others and am capable of rising out of the suffering when I choose to. As Buddha so beautifully taught, “Life is Suffering” and the sooner we can accept this truth, the more we can live in peace, joy and freedom.

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