The book “A Road Less Travelled’ by M Scott Peck opens with the statement “Life is difficult” which is an unusual first sentence for any book, but of course it’s true. Life brings all of us difficulties and pain as well as opportunities and joy.
Many of us have had phases in life when we feel vulnerable, misjudged and exposed to harshness and unfairness and maybe some of you reading this now will feel you are going through such a phase. It’s easy to blame ourselves when life feels hard, when feel hurt or let down by friends or loved ones, and we may end up feeling we are lacking in some way as a person, yet it’s important to remember that life is the result of a dynamic or several dynamics coming together, just like the weather! How many of us ever think about how the rain falls?
‘One way that the atmosphere can become unstable is by heating from the sun. The ground warms up, causing moisture in the ground to evaporate and rise, and the hot ground also heats the air above it. As the water vapour rises, it cools and condenses into clouds and eventually rain.’ www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/rain/why-does-it-rain
There are several dynamics at play in the causative process here – the heating from the sun, the ground warming, moisture in the ground which evaporates and then rises etc. etc. However despite the process we only notice the end result which is the rain. When life is difficult we often fail to see all the contributing factors and the causative process involved, we notice only the difficulty and the pain and often end up blaming ourselves.
Self-belief is the emotional insulation that can protect you when life is difficult. Self-belief allows you to recognise that you are only one contributory dynamic within any difficult situation, environment, relationship or phase of your life that you might experience. Learn how to strengthen your self-belief in my next blog.