We all face tribulations in life. You know, that feeling you get when you mess things up, or someone hurts you. Or perhaps you just feel like everything you do is jinxed and there is a dark cloud that looms over you, pursuing you like a cat stalking its prey. What if you could change all that?

The picture above holds a deep symbolism for the way we choose to look at life. Here is a tree stump. The tree was cut down, yet from that stump new shoots have sprouted. As it grows, it will be even bigger and better than the original that had proudly stood there. The tree chose to transcend it's potential death, gratefully sprouting new shoots. Healthy and strong. It didn't die or give up. It chose to find a way to survive.

In a human experience we are taught to fear death. That it is the end of the line. We are taught to fear challenge and adversity. To give up or find something else because we failed. Yet, look again at the tree. It didn't try to become anything else nor did it simply give up. It used it's loss to regenerate, to enter a new phase of life.

Our ingrained disconnect from other living organisms on this planet, that has been passed down through the generations of those attempting to live a more 'civilized' life, has birthed our assumption that we are above or better than everything else here. It makes us misunderstand the concept of the life-death cycle. Yet, look again at this tree, this beauty having reached maturity, has endured the attempted destruction to start again.

We strive for greatness but somehow only a few are able to endure the hardships and perils that they encounter on their journey. Each time we face something difficult in life, it can feel as if the whole world is upon us. That feeling of giving in and giving up. It is an emotion that has been developed through learned behavior, from a feeling of complete helplessness.
Modern society has created people who are reliant upon the system. We depend on it for our most basic of human needs.

In contrast we only need to look at a tribe of people that all work together, support one another and make sure that every member has their share in the group.

In a similar way in which a baby needs a mother or parent to dress, feed, change and carry from place to place, we rely on the rules of modern society to tell us what to think, how to feel and how to behave. When things go wrong they don't help us. We are of no benefit to the system if we are broken. So they sticky-tape us up with pills and label us into categories of our conditions. They only treat the symptom that they have created. They would never treat the cause. Because they are a huge contributory factor to the cause and if we were to truly free ourselves from it then their control over us would fail.

Image Credit

NO WONDER WE HAVE A TOUGH TIME DEALING WITH PROBLEMS

Image Credit

It doesn't have to be this way. We can all recover from hardships and difficulties.

We Are More Like That Tree Than We Give Ourselves Credit For

Think of a time when you were growing up. Perhaps a young child or in your teen years. A time where something or someone hurt you or stopped you from achieving something. Perhaps you felt that you weren't good enough and gave up. Remember how hurt or angry, upset or just plain defeated you felt. At that time nothing anyone said could change that feeling. You didn't know which direction to take.

Yet here you are, reading this and probably thinking back to how trivial a situation it was and that it didn't warrant the energy you gave to it.

But you learnt that no matter how hard things seem and no matter how difficult our circumstances, we can survive, regrow and learn from it. Just like that tree. It didn't give up and it came back stronger than ever. So if you find yourself in a difficult place right now remember these two quotes:

" That which does not kill us makes us stronger" ~Friedrich Nietzsche

&

"Transformation is a process, and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs. It’s a journey of discovery." ~Rick Warren

It is equally important to remember that the way in which we respond to difficult situations has a significant impact which will further shape our future outcome. We can chose to empower ourselves, to accept that we cannot change the past, to look at what we could have done differently and discover better ways to move on. These are all character building skills that will help us 'regrow' our shoots. It's not always easy, but we can use that pain to guide us through and help us. Just like the tree sprouted new shoots after being chopped down, our pain will pass with each new shoot that appears.

Life is a journey of self discovery. There is a lesson to be learned from every experience we have. When in doubt about how to proceed, remember that tree. Remember we can grow to be emotionally stronger, resilient beings who can enjoy life and be happy.

~ONE LOVE~

I'm proud to be a member of the @ecotrain community. Come check out the amazing content from other #ecotrain passengers. A group of diverse human beings, sharing a collective vision to help make this world a better place.

@steemitbloggers