What Nature Can Teach Us About Overcoming Difficulties In Life
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?
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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.
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NO WONDER WE HAVE A TOUGH TIME DEALING WITH PROBLEMS
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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.
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This has been a thing of mine for so long, thank you for bringing light to such an important concept. Until we as humans decide to live in unison and in cooperation with this planet, as opposed to trying to control it, we'll continually find the current mess we now reside in. We have so much to learn from nature, and your post does that beautifully! Thank you :)
You're so very welcome @lynncoyle1. I'm glad that each day more people are waking up to this understanding. Big love to you. <3
This is really nice and just like a reminder mostly for me @holisticmum. Just like taking care of mother nature she gives life to everything. Jah bless ..keep it skianking (am in the wind)
Oh yes, it's very important to look after mother nature too. Thank you for your kind words! :-)
Wow you are such an empowering person @holisticmum!!! This post is very helpful and motivating. I love your awesome comparison using that tree stump that got chopped off.
I agree with this and am gladly be reminded about it:
It is true that modern world system has taught us to treat symptoms and not heal the root problem. So many good truths in this post!!!
resteemed really hope this post gets noticed and get the upvotes it truly deserves! :)
Thank you for your kind words and the resteem! It's very much appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed the post. <3
I'm here from the #steemitbloggers daily boost, and I'm so glad @jaynie put this on my radar! That tree analogy is awesome, and a great reminder not to give up hope. Thanks for sharing this bit of light with all of us, and bright blessings to you!
Thank you for heading over and taking the time to read my post. I really appreciate it. For sure, it's really important to stay hopeful and to not give up too easily. Many blessings to you too! <3
You're very welcome, @holisticmom!
Well put! They do only "treat the symptom they created. Never the cause" that applies to so many aspects in life. Years ago, visiting friends, they showed me a young olive tree which was growing out of an ugly dead stump. The story was that the stump used to be a magnificent olive tree in someone elses garden. They didn't want the tree. It was poisoned, but wouldn't die, then chopped down, but kept sending out roots, then burnt. My friends rescued it thinking that the worst that could happen was that it would become compost. A couple years later, despite all odds this young sapling had shot forth! Such a beautiful lesson
Thank you very much @buckaroo. I love your tree analogy too. What a beautiful story. It's really inspiring how much nature can teach us about our own lives. <3
Hello @holisticmom!
I have been having a hard time as of late keeping up the positive energy. I have BPD (borderline personality disorder). Basically that means when I have feelings, they are very intense.
I've had difficult situation on top of difficult situation arise this week and I'm frazzled.
Thank you for the message you are conveying here, it helps some.
I'm sorry to hear you have been having trouble @jgvinstl (I actually saw your comment in the chat section of @steemitbloggers discord, but I'm more of a creeper haha than an actual participant in chat rooms), but I'm so glad that this post helped you somewhat. There are so many positive and helpful steemians and posts here. I wish you well :)
I'm sorry to hear you've been having a tough time lately. Thank you for taking the time to write such an honest comment and I'm glad that what I wrote resonates with you. I think @lynnecoyle's comment above also sums up how I feel too. Sending you love and light 😊❤
'Just like the tree sprouted new shoots after being chopped down, our pain will pass with each new shoot that appears.' Thanks for that it gives me hope.
Thank you and you're very welcome. We all need to have hope, and with hope comes the ability to achieve our dreams too. <3
Aho!
Beautiful! I was talking about the life death cycle with one of my teachers the other day, as we were reflecting on Dad's attitude toward his illness i.e 'it's just part of life, happens to us all' and thinking about how that's so true and a lot of people don't see it that way - any hardship, aging etc becomes so defining and limiting. But it's just opportunities for growth and part of life - that's just what happens!!!
I love the idea of choosing to welcome in darkness or adversity. Sure, I'd rather not have it, but if we don't identify with it i.e "I am that" and instead think "ah, this is that, okay, that's just part of human experience" then it's a little easier.
Lovely post xxxxx
Thank you@riverflows. Imagine if we were all able to have that attitude and strength that your dad has. I really do think that we need tough times to help us to grow. Imagine if we spent our whole lives having everything we want and never learning hardship in some form? We would fall to pieces if anything ever did go wrong as well as have the constant stress of maintaining this perceived perfection that we created for ourselves.
this is beautiful @holisticmom, so many forget that we are nature, so looking to our natural environment to learn and help us to continue to strive forward makes the most sense. Send down roots and stand strong like a tree. Like water Allow yourself to be inflow, to be fluid and keep moving forward xx
Thank you @trucklife-family. I knew you would understand this. When I read your posts it is clear to see your beautiful connection and understanding with nature too. :-) one love beautiful lady. <3
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