Standing-strong

Standing Strong

Today I want to remind ourselves to stand firm during difficult times.  Standing firm is such an important life skill that kids and adults need to understand the qualities described herein. It applies when we’re learning something new, like the Yoga pose in this photo or if you are recovering from an illness.  We know that what we tell ourselves is what happens.  As I write this, I am recovering from knee replacement surgery.  The pain is still a significant factor, and it would be easy to slip into the “poor me” syndrome.

As I do the stretches and exercises to strengthen my new knee, I tell myself that my body likes stretching, that stretching will bring less pain as my muscles align and become stronger.  When we have hard choices, life seems to come in the back door and clobber us sometimes.

As a high school band director directing a competitive high school program for many years, I like to remind my students that you can’t run from everything hard in life and then expect to reach your goals.  There are aspects to life that require us to buckle down and continue the trudge uphill toward our victory.  When I speak to youth and adults, I remind them by showing my arms outreached in a diagonal line, and I tell them, “It is all uphill.”

So often give kids, who become adults, the impression that there are shortcuts or that somehow they can skip the complex, challenging stuff and still get to where they are going.  Remain in your image or success; stay with your victory celebration in your mind’s eye.  Push yourself to the day when you walk without pain.  I expect a full recovery and see myself doing things that I cannot do right now, but it takes personal effort.

Look at the woman in this photo.  How many times do you think she tried and tried that Yoga post and was unsuccessful?  How many times did she fall over?  What are the more minor poses within this pose that she had to learn and master before she could even attempt this?  We must fight the good fight, believing that in faith we are led.  I am a faith-based person, so you can skip it if this doesn’t fit your beliefs.  I think that God doesn’t waste anything that we’re going through.

No experience, no challenge, no difficulties. Nothing is just a plain old setback.  It all leads to our goal of achieving a fully conscious being.  You are learning toward upcoming opportunities for the more prominent, challenging positions you aren’t even aware of yet.

Taking time to monitor our thoughts, rather than being discouraged, we are near a victory.  I believe this and have seen it come true in my own life many times.  Just when we are beginning to feel like, “Well, maybe I understood this wrong, maybe this goal was too big, maybe I won’t recover fully.”  That is when you want to dig deeper, remind yourself of your vision and push forward to victory.  Eventually, you will be able to do a pose (metaphorically) like this woman.  Determination and perseverance will be the keys.

Stand Strong is a life skill and so is Standing Firm.  Learn the difference and how to apply these to your life here, Standing Firm – Dr. Rich Patterson (pattersonphd.com)

Author, Beverly D. Flaxington writes about understanding other people in Stand Strong in Your Beliefs in Psychology Today here, Stand Strong in Your Beliefs | Psychology Today

Yours for a Better Life,

Rich