Life is fragile, but, you don’t have to be!
What I mean by that is that things happen to us, to all of us, that we don’t expect. Sometimes those things end a life unexpectedly; Covid-19 for instance. Or, just being out of the house and something happens that changes one or more lives forever. Life is fragile.
For me it was my heart. In good shape, active and competitive (in my own mind at least) for most of my life! In 2002 it started with a minor heart attack (my first thought when I figured out what was happening was, “Are you ___ kidding?”). Then an almost heart attack in 2009 and finally a triple bypass in 2019.
For others it was a skiing accident that led to a coma. For others, a ride on a bike that ended in an accident with a car. You get the idea. Life is fragile.
You don’t have to be fragile though. And I guess, in someway, that is what we mean by all the sayings we have about what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We talk about resilience because that will help fragility. We talk about good mental health (which is tough for a lot of us at the moment) which can keep us strong and less fragile.
For me, being less fragile is supported by 3 things we all can do.
First, we can start working on being more aware of ourselves, of other people, of circumstances, of threats and of opportunities. Then do a bit of a reality check on how we react and in what way. Did it help you?
Second, is having, knowing or finding our choices. Stephen Covey talked about being response-able. This is a key choice for all of us. It is how we choose to respond to what is happening to and around us. Even the choice to allow ourselves to stop for a second and take a breath or two, before reacting, is us being response-able.
Third is trusting ourselves, especially when those around don’t seem to trust themselves and want us in that boat with them. That can be their story, not ours. I propose that if we are aware, purposefully (that is we take the time to check-in and understand what’s going on with and around us), and we are practicing how we respond, keeping our choices in mind, we can trust ourselves. We can trust our decisions and go with our own thoughts, wants, wishes and desires.
Here’s the really great part. If we make a choice and take action and it doesn’t work, we can build more awareness around what didn’t work well. Then we can choose differently and act. Did it go better or worse? Either way, we can repeat this cycle until we are satisfied with our result!
Feel stronger already? I hope so.
If you want to practice this cycle with support, let me know at www.bearingcoach.ca/contact (choose Life in the drop down) and I’ll help you stay strong no matter how fragile life gets!