Getting Through the Hard Times

Whether it's the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the break-up of a relationship, we all face challenges and struggles as we go through life. Sometimes those challenges are short lived and other times, we just can't seem to move beyond whatever it is we are dealing with.

When the difficult times drag on for months and months and months, many of us become depressed. We may turn to alcohol or drugs, contemplate suicide, overeat or engage in other self-destructive behavior. We wonder why we are facing such difficult challenges. Our faith in whatever higher power we believe in may falter.

However we respond to the challenges in life, I think one thing we all have in common is that we tend to look back to the time when life was good and wish we could return to that time. My question for you is this: By yearning to return to the past, do we somehow lose sight of the future? By focusing on the past, do we miss an opportunity to grow and ready ourselves for the next chapter of our lives?

Over the past few months, many times I have found myself saying, "I want my old life back!" That statement presupposes that what lay ahead for me will not be as good as my past life. I believe in the law of attraction and I realize that by focusing on my old life and assuming that my future will not be as good, I am creating a future that is not as good!

So, when we are facing hard times and wallowing in the past and are consumed with feeling sorry for ourselves, how do we change our focus? I've decided that each time I'm feeling sad and longing for my old life, I have to make an active and conscious decision to envision my future as I would have it be. I must see and feel myself living a happy, prosperous, abundant, secure, fulfilled and content life. It's hard work, but practice makes perfect, right?