Have you ever awakened in the morning feeling loved and appreciating your life and all the people in it? Today I had one of those mornings. I literally woke up with a smile on my face.
Last Friday I had an appointment with my physical therapist Ron Agostini, owner of Physical Therapy of Mystic, in Groton, CT. Ron began, as he always does, by using kinesiology to ask my body where it needed his help on that day. Despite originally coming to him with a problem with my arm, he held both sides of my temples and jaw, for roughly 3 to 4 minutes.
My sight got very blurry and I began seeing waves and I felt an intense sadness as tears fell down my cheeks. When he released his hands, Ron reassuringly replied, “I think we just discovered where you’ve been holding your stress.”
Since my jaw has felt “lighter” than it had in years and I do not want to hold onto any addition stress, I’ve been focusing on seeing and accepting whatever comes my way. I’m doing my best to remain calm and connected within, and accepting what is.
Life and people always surprise us because they are so unpredictable. Everything changes and life is always filled with surprises. Having the ability to accept whatever comes our way and to embrace it, transforms us in many positive ways.
I know that it’s not easy to accept and embrace anything when we are in pain and suffering, so what I have found helps is to first start by cultivating acceptance with less difficult things. Start small and often, and soon you’ll be prepared when difficult challenges come your way.
Have you noticed that whenever we fight and resist things, we generate additional problems for ourselves and that our thinking often becomes distorted? We can accept what’s happening, see the positive, and choose a peaceful state of mind or we can fight, be miserable, and struggle.
Being sick and getting easily fatigued for so many years, forced me to think about how I wanted to use the energy I had. By accepting that everyone has their own perspective — and by understanding and accepting that everyone is supposed to and respecting this — has made my own life run so much smoother. By accepting that my way isn’t the only way to see things, has helped my body to grow stronger too.
By accepting and viewing things from a calm perspective and focusing on how to solve problems —and avoiding blaming others or feeling sorry for myself — has not only cultivated much happiness in my life, improved relationships and helped me to achieve my goals, but it has reduced the stress I was putting on my body.
We cannot change others but thankfully we can change ourselves. By doing so, our lives can greatly improve.
Sending my love and peace,
Sandi
Hi Sandi,
What a GREAT idea!!! I’d like to sign up to speak with you via Skype but I don’t have a date in mind as yet. I’m meeting with my Pulmonologist tomorrow to see what he thinks about this year-long cough of mine and then I’ll have a better idea as to when I’d be available. I could use advice on how to keep myself from being overwhelmed by everything going on within and around me. I may have mentioned I’ve had a few stressful years and I can’t always put things into perspective.
Let me know if we can spend some time together via Skype.
Love and hugs,
ginger
ginger smyle
15 Wilbur Hill Lane
Stonington, CT 06378
860.536.2554 / home
860.961.8505 / cell
this is such wonderful insight into such complex situations. My fatigue & loss of almost all happiness has me not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m amazed at your strength & courage & I don’t know how to begin believing in too much currently. Grief, medical changes which maybe has been a problem, and not letting anything out because not many would listen or believe. I know I’m thinking I’m accepting but not really.
Thank you for the kind words that you wrote Bonnie. Acceptance is indeed a step-by-step process that has expanded and has improved in my life, more-and-more as the years pass. You don’t know where to start? You may want to start –as I did — every night, while lying in bed going through the entire alphabet listing all the things you were grateful for that day, such as A — the apple that I ate, B — the bird that I heard singing, C — the cat that was purring so soothingly, etc. There were evenings, many years ago, that I had to go through the alphabet twice before I even began to feel grateful, during the particularly difficult times. Accepting others if they cannot listen with an open heart is something I think is extremely important, and at times I found quite difficult to accept, but once I did it made a huge difference! Thank you again for posting Bonnie.