Overcoming Obstacles

A powerful key to personal transformation is to make your life vision more powerful than any circumstance you may be facing in your life.  Let me share a story with you.  Yesterday was a big day in the office.  Saturday mornings are the busiest time in the practice where for 4 hours straight we are packed with couples, kids, and many 3 generation families all coming in to get adjusted together.  The music is up and the energy is great.  That day the energy was especially great because we had one of our quarterly workshops in the office on “Moving Well.”  As the office began to fill up with more and more with people, I couldn’t help but notice one of my patients, a beautiful woman in her 70s, coming to attend the talk.  She is a sweet and gentle woman who has just started care with me a couple of weeks ago.  It was inspiring for me to see her there because when most people are winding down and becoming less mobile, less energetic, and focusing less on improving their lives, there sits this woman in her 70s dedicating her Saturday afternoon to learn how to bring more energy, movement, and vitality into her life.  She was engaged throughout the entire workshop and even came up to me after and said how excited she was to move more.  She was going to start with sitting down in a chair and standing up from a chair multiple times per day and work to do full squats without any assistance from anyone else.  This is a beautiful person with a powerful vision for her life.  She was not going to let her current circumstance overshadow the vision she had for her life.  As the teacher that day, I quickly became the student. 

We all have circumstances in our life that trouble us.  We all have areas in our life that are not where we would love them to be.  It may be in dealing with relationships, finances, work, family, or our health.  Is your vision for your life more powerful than those circumstances or are you living as a victim to your circumstances?  Now the question we need to ask is, “How do we create an empowering vision for our life?”

1 Become vulnerable.  Be open to your emotions and the sensations you feel in your body on a regular basis.  Be open to what inspires you, what challenges you, what gets your skin crawling and blood boiling, what you enjoy doing, and who you do and don’t enjoy being with.  The first key to developing a life vision is as Socrates said, “Know thyself.”

2 Cutlivate and determine the way you want to feel about life.  Many people confuse this with goals.  Achieving goals do not necessarily make you happy. The only true way to happiness is to choose it! There is no inherent meaning in things and experiences except the meaning we give it.  Instead of wishing for a red Ferrari or brand new Rolex to make you happy, how about choosing happiness now? Wouldn’t it be better to live your life happy and attract the things you want as an expression of that happiness rather than basing your happiness on the accomplishment of things or experiences?  The person who finds as much happiness in the smile of a child as they would in winning a bright red, brand new Ferrari has the whole world in their hands. 

3 Create a plan and a strategy for your life. Let me give you an example. Let us say you take where you are right now and your ultimate goal is peace, happiness, joy, and fulfillment.  Happiness doesn’t pay the bills.  Happiness doesn’t provide for you and your family.  Happiness doesn’t let you travel around the world.  Happiness doesn’t allow you to serve your fellow man.  Happiness must be backed by a 4 letter dirty word – WORK.  This reminds me of a parable of a fellow who approached the door of a house with a magnificent garden full of fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers.  People traveled from all over to see the unbelievable beauty of this creation.  The fellow knocked on the door and the owner of the garden answered the door.  The fellow asked the owner how he had come to buy a piece of land with such a beautiful garden. The man replied, ”When I bought the land, it was only weeds and grass.  I had a vision and saw the potential of what could be created and set forth working everyday to make that vision a reality. G-d had provided me with a blank piece of land.  It was our partnership that created what you see before you.”

We are not defined by our circumstances.  We are defined by who we are and who we become in dealing with our circumstances.  Like the beautiful woman in my office, when you create a vision for your life that is more powerful than any circumstance you may face, you will find that everything is serving your evolution.  You will find that every circumstance is a stepping stone to your happiness.  Each stone, large and small, elevates you to new heights if you open yourself up to the lessons that every opportunity can provide you.  My beautiful patient has inspired me to never give up in the pursuit of the vision I have for my life.  My hope is she has done the same for you.

Love,

Matt