For Tough Seasons of Life: Resilience & Pathways to Meaning After Hardship
Imagine you’re on a treacherous hiking trail in the mountains, reaching the end of your trek upward. A cool, brisk air follows you as you continue on the trail, outlining the effort of your breath—the adrenaline in your body. You take a look to your right, and you see a glimmer of sunlight peeping through what once was a dark, clouded sky; the same sky that brought a downpour upon you earlier. The smell of a fresh rain overcomes you as a velvety mist in the air is uncovered by the light of the sun. You’re exhausted from a long day, and while the end approaches, all you can think about are the hardships you’ve had to endure, just to see this view—the view that now surrounds you, as you realize: you’ve made it to your destination. As you look around, admiring your surroundings, you begin to wonder what’s beyond the narrow line of trees going left; the nearby stream flowing downward to your right. Endless opportunities await, yet the path is unclear. You wonder to yourself, “would it be worth it to keep going, when I’ve already endured so much?” Yet you wonder what’s on the other side of what your eyes can see. It would be frightening to keep going, not knowing how to get there, what lies ahead, or even which direction to take, but part of you wants to do it anyway. Part of you is hopeful that something beyond where your feet stand is what is meant for you, that maybe the end of this trail isn’t all there is to see after all. And in that moment, you disregard your exhausted, rain-soaked state, take a deep breath, and decide to take the beaten path into unknown territory.
There are many times in life where we may fall short on our expectations of what life should look like. When problems arise and we feel like the world is crumbling at our feet, we begin to feel hopeless, questioning our choices and wondering why it played out that way, or what could we have done differently to change the outcome. Oftentimes, these struggles are out of our control, yet the consequences cause us to have to take great leaps of faith in order to get ourselves back up again to where we want to be. They require a level of resilience and confidence that sometimes may seem impossible to reach when we feel so defeated inside. But the important thing to keep in mind when these moments come rushing in is to remember why you started the journey in the first place.
Remember why you set those goals that failed, remember why you chose the harder decision over the easier one. You had a destination in mind—and although some parts of the journey knocked you down along the way, maybe you realize later that it was actually the push you needed to take that extra mile. Maybe it actually gave you the strength to pull yourself up, even when you thought you had no more strength left to give.
Is it possible that our hardships and shortcomings might cause us to reach for more? To make changes in our ways of thinking? To challenge us? Maybe our hardships actually inspire us to dig deeper, to remember our why, and to be courageous enough to change the status quo by taking leaps of faith when an opportunity arises. They say with experience comes wisdom, maybe even a fresh perspective. It’s that little glimmer of sunshine after a hard rainfall that gives us hope. That gives us strength to look beyond what’s right in front of us, to become inspired with what could be on the other side for us if we just kept going.
Book Recommendation:
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? – by Julie Smith
Clinical Therapist at Clarte Counseling, LLC
