Source: freefoto.com
Source: landscape-photo.net
Somewhere between common sense and hopes-and-dreams, there is a zone. A space. A very thin slice of possibility that requires the utmost attention to keep to.
It’s a fine line between the worlds of extreme possibility and excessive self-disregard.
And if you don’t have a full appreciation of yourself, it can be all too easy to wander outside the zone, the fine, fine line between what can be and what can’t.
A full appreciation of yourself isn’t just about knowing your limits, though that’s important. It’s also about knowing how you’re not limited. If you push harder than your system can bear, you can end up injuring yourself pretty badly. But if you don’t push yourself at all, you can harm yourself even more.
Injuries heal. They can often be compensated for. We can learn new ways of living that make up for our hurt. But if you never test your limits and you settle into a way of life that “accepts” the over-sized limits that you or someone else has put on you, then you never have the chance to find out what all is possible. And you cheat yourself of the chance to compensate for your injuries and heal.
If you tell yourself you can’t recover, then you won’t.
If you tell yourself you’re damaged goods, then what incentive do you have to learn and grow?
If you buy into the (perhaps) well-intentioned cautions of others about “not pushing too hard,” what chance are you giving yourself to find out what else is possible in your life besides hurt and pain and disappointment?
It’s never a simple matter, when it comes to recovering from disaster. Whether it’s traumatic brain injury, PTSD, or some other sort of trauma or catastrophe, recovery is rarely a straight-forward process. We’re human, after all, and we have our wrinkles, our inconsistencies, our paradoxes.
But we also have our strength, and lest we forget, strength doesn’t develop on its own. It takes resistance. It takes strain. It takes stress, to make more of us than what we were before.
I have friends who insist that “grace and ease” is the path to paradise. I, for one, have a different experience. Based on my own experience, not their words, I believe you have to climb over an awful lot of rubble and pull aside an awful lot of rocks and broken cinderblocks, to find the fresh growth that can become true paradise.
But climbing over rubble takes balance and care. It demands mindful attention to what’s before you, what’s around you, what’s coming up behind you. And care for what is is you are seeking to find and create in your life.
But it can be done. That fine, fine line can be walked. It’s waiting.
Source: freefoto.com
Source: landscape-photo.net
Somewhere between common sense and hopes-and-dreams, there is a zone. A space. A very thin slice of possibility that requires the utmost attention to keep to.
It’s a fine line between the worlds of extreme possibility and excessive self-disregard.
And if you don’t have a full appreciation of yourself, it can be all too easy to wander outside the zone, the fine, fine line between what can be and what can’t.
A full appreciation of yourself isn’t just about knowing your limits, though that’s important. It’s also about knowing how you’re not limited. If you push harder than your system can bear, you can end up injuring yourself pretty badly. But if you don’t push yourself at all, you can harm yourself even more.
Injuries heal. They can often be compensated for. We can learn new ways of living that make up for our hurt. But if you never test your limits and you settle into a way of life that “accepts” the over-sized limits that you or someone else has put on you, then you never have the chance to find out what all is possible. And you cheat yourself of the chance to compensate for your injuries and heal.
If you tell yourself you can’t recover, then you won’t.
If you tell yourself you’re damaged goods, then what incentive do you have to learn and grow?
If you buy into the (perhaps) well-intentioned cautions of others about “not pushing too hard,” what chance are you giving yourself to find out what else is possible in your life besides hurt and pain and disappointment?
It’s never a simple matter, when it comes to recovering from disaster. Whether it’s traumatic brain injury, PTSD, or some other sort of trauma or catastrophe, recovery is rarely a straight-forward process. We’re human, after all, and we have our wrinkles, our inconsistencies, our paradoxes.
But we also have our strength, and lest we forget, strength doesn’t develop on its own. It takes resistance. It takes strain. It takes stress, to make more of us than what we were before.
I have friends who insist that “grace and ease” is the path to paradise. I, for one, have a different experience. Based on my own experience, not their words, I believe you have to climb over an awful lot of rubble and pull aside an awful lot of rocks and broken cinderblocks, to find the fresh growth that can become true paradise.
But climbing over rubble takes balance and care. It demands mindful attention to what’s before you, what’s around you, what’s coming up behind you. And care for what is is you are seeking to find and create in your life.
But it can be done. That fine, fine line can be walked. It’s waiting.