“Often it’s the deepest pain which empowers you to grow into your highest self. “
– Karen Salmansohn
It’s easy to be your strongest, highest self when things are rolling along smoothly. But how you handle life’s setbacks and traumas reveals your authentic character. If you can be strong during challenging times, then…well, you truly ARE a disciplined and spirited person. This identity makes you not only a very cool person—but a very happy person. Just as it takes willpower to choose to stay on a healthy diet during times of great temptation, it also takes willpower to choose to remain a positive and happy human being during times of crisis. Basically, to live a happy life takes effort and work. Happiness is not for the faint hearted. For this reason, you need to develop a long-term vision for who you uniquely value being—recognizing which core values make you the happiest—so you can stay focused on embracing these values, no matter what your trials and tribulations.
We all carry within us emotional pain. And those who claim they don’t, are simply better at hiding and suppressing it and even fooling their own selves. It may come from failed relationships, being abused as a child, guilt over something you did as a teenager, being sidelined by your parents or siblings or even at school, being teased all through life for being obese or short or dark or ugly…..
We all have some pain hidden deep within the dark confines of our hearts in some measure of the other. And we cannot judge anybody’s pain as being greater or genuine or otherwise because pain is completely subjective and can defy all sense of rational logic.
This deep-seated kind of pain is carried with us through life rippling through all that we do. It is only when we summon up the courage to confront our pain, work through it, give it closure and let it go, that we can truly move on from it. And it is only through doing this that we can grow and evolve into the highest possible version of ourselves.
In life, we always have a choice: To Be weak or to Be strong. Whichever of these paths we choose will determine our ability to bounce back from life’s myriad setbacks, crises, or traumas. If we want to survive life’s many challenges, we must put in the conscious effort and discipline to be a strong person. It’s essential that we create a fiery will from within—harness that power of decisiveness—and choose to be our strongest self.