ecoTrain Question Of The Week - "What is the one negative experience in your life from which you extracted a positive lesson and used it to shape your life and self for the better?" Read 6 Responses

The question this week has stirred up many deep and painful memories for many of us on the ecoTrain. Six of our passengers have answered this question from their own perspectives and experiences. Reading their stories has helped me to get to know them all a little better, and to understand that nearly all of us have had to endure great hardship in life. What is inspiring is to see what a positive impact even the worst events have had on us.

For me, one of the most negative experiences I had was simply to have had a very painful lower back failure. I was basically stuck in absolute agony for around 10 days, almost totally alone in a remote location. I was unable to even sit without experiencing excruciating pain and had no idea how long this would go on for. I prayed for the day I would be able to recover, and will never forget the torture of being in constant agony. Finally, after the worst 10 days of my life, a great doctor and healer came and did some acupressure on me. It took just 40 minutes, and by the end of it I was up on my feet and walking again. Dr Matthews had the hands of an angel, and without any painkillers or medicine, brought me back to a painless existence. What a joy!

I remeber thinking whilst I was in agony that if I could only live again without this pain I would try to be happy and appreciate the simple fact that I am able to stand and function normally. Even until today, with all the great tests I have to endure, I still remember this experience and use it as a beacon.

Life is hard, and especially so if we take it for granted. Sometimes it is good to take a step back, and remember that we are totally blessed and lucky beyond any measurable way to even be alive! Life is what we make it, and sometimes life gives us a big nudge to help us along our way.

Oh, one more thing! This week I will be awarding some gifts in the form of $teem Dollars for your comments. Please share with us a story or experience you have had, that helped you to improve your life. I will award an amount between $1 and $5 directly on your comment using @tipu. In total we have $20 SBD to gift you so at least 5-10 of you will receive something. Oh, and if you write something totally amazing that leaves us astounded, then I have a special $10 SBD waiting to give to you!

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A very big thanks goes out to the following ecoTrain passengers for their contribution to this weeks prize pot!.

THANK YOU!
@likedeeler @ecoinstant @gardenbsquared @sharoonyasir

Thanks also to @sharoonyasir for proposing this weeks question!

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Our passengers posts are all shown and linked below. We have all posted on this question at the same time. If you never saw the QOTW before, you are in for a treat!

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@sashagenji

When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready... The teacher will Disappear. Lao Tzu I'm sitting on the plane. Bangkok is left behind me, and I am heading to the former Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City. A beloved husband sits next to me listening to an audiobook. It feels very good being on the way to something new in your life. Somewhere in the backyard of my consciousness flashes the thought.

» Click here to read more

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@hopehuggs

As an Ecotrain passenger, here is my emotional answer to the title question. Tears have been shed writing this... Whatever you do don't lose yourself and what is important to you... It took 14 years of a difficult relationship to work that one out and I almost lost me in the process. I really feel like I just want to rewind at least the last 10 years, or just forget about them. (Apart from my gorgeous girls of course). We met on a blind date and he beguiled with tales of his successful writing career (which turned out to be BS to start with), as that was always my dream and I obviously let him know that early on. He was mysterious, which at the time made him incredibly attractive.

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@ecoinstant

How am I ever going to get out of this country? I was having visa troubles, mainly I hadn't applied for a new visa since I had arrived in October, it was now April, and I really didn'’'t want to stay any longer either. My problem was, how to leave? I was staying illegally, working illegally and also having my pay withheld, with the promise of future pay of course, but each paycheck kept getting smaller and my "savings" kept rising. Frankly, according to my visa situation, it probably would have been more illegal to pay me, but either way, I was in a pickle.

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@gardenbsquared

It was July 2006 when I heard the bad news. My mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died two years later. Needless to say that this was a very difficult period for the whole family. My mother had cancer in her bowls and liver. It was inoperable and they gave her chemotherapy but to no avail. She slowly deteriorated over time and physically she became weaker and weaker. But mentally she remained strong as ever. She remained positive and was more worried about us than she was about herself. Even during the final weeks, despite the tears, there was still laughter to be heard in my parents house.

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@sharoonyasir

This week the @ecoTrain passengers were asked to answer the question stated above as the "question of the week." We encounter many experiences in our life, some of which are good and bad. If you analyze the many experiences in your life, you will realize that most of them are caused by your own actions and reactions. Putting aside unexpected and sudden death and a few other experiences beyond your control, most of what you experience is a manifestation of your thoughts, feelings, attitude and actions.

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@likedeeler

"Come inside!" I heard my father calling me from my parents' bedroom just seconds after I had walked through the apartment door, coming home from school. "What now again?" I thought, searching frantically through my memory for any mistakes or acts of misbehaviour I could possibly have committed. When I entered the bedroom I saw that my parents were still in bed, my father shaking my mother, shouting "Don't take the piss out on me!", his voice panicking. My mother was trying to say something, but it was all some incomprehensible sounds. Then he told me to call our doctor.

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Put a Smile on my Face and Re-Steem This! ;-)