The Bad Stuff: A Matter of When, Not If

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

As humans, our little peanut brains are under constant vigilance to insulate and protect us from bad things. We’re hard-wired for this >> it’s a left-over from the caveman days.

We try our hardest to live and act in ways that allow for maximum control of our circumstances, environment and our person so that the “bad” is limited — or at least if it happens, it’s something we’ve already planned and prepared ourselves. (Mentally, anyway.)

I’m convinced we’re all control freaks. At least in this sense.

Except, the only thing we’re really doing is creating an artificial reality and preventing ourselves from truly experiencing the full spectrum of life. We are impeding our own happiness.

Here’s the truth about life:

The bad stuff is going to happen.

There is nothing we can do to stop it – it’s part of the human experience. We WILL experience shame, blame, judgment, and criticism. Same goes for pain, suffering, trauma, drama, loss, rejection, heartbreak, and other people’s shitty behavior. Catastrophes, tragedy, acts of God… << yep, those too.

We can’t prevent any of these things, but we can choose to not allow them to make us small. To keep us small. To break us. Or be fundamentally reduced by them. These are the things that ARE within our control.

We get to choose how we react.
We get to choose our response.
We get to choose how we allow the events to impact us and our life going forward.
We get to choose to leverage our circumstances to become a better version of ourselves.
We get to choose to rise, conquer, survive, and ultimately THRIVE.

Love. Kyleigh