Life of Ease
Over the past three weeks, you have worked hard and learned a lot! This week, you’ll learn to cut yourself some slack and breath easy in serenity.
Credo 4 The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
The key here is in the last line. Honestly, you cannot change many, many things and that’s OK. Make your peace and move on. If you are a worry-wart, this poem needs to become your mantra.
My example
While I’m not a worrier by nature, one thing sure to convert me is watching loved ones (or anyone, really) needlessly and sometimes intentionally harm themselves. And I have a broader definition of self-harm than many. If you eat conventional foods, the standard American diet, take unnecessary meds, have fragrant candles, etc, etc, you are harming yourself. I watched my grandma die of Alzheimer’s and from my perspective it was a veritable suicide. I realize that she may have developed Alzheimer’s under other circumstances. 
My point is that she didn’t even try to avoid it. She lived the most mindless and inactive life she could, ping ponging from the bed to the chair to the bed to the chair for over 50 years. She did not read. She had no hobbies or interests. My granddad provided for her every need. She literally sat there staring off into space doing nothing. Ever. My words of ginkgo and walking fell on deaf ears and eventually an empty mind. That was a tough one for me. And one The Serenity Prayer really helped me through. I had to accept that I could not change her. I could not make her decisions for her. You know what I can change though? Myself. My perspective. My choices. How empowering it is to learn that I, and only I, am in control of me.
Perspective Alignment
Over the past month, we explored 4 ways to intentionally experience a mind shift, a perspective alignment. I hope these catchy phrases,
“Don’t cry over spilled milk’,
‘What’s the worse that could happen?’,
‘When life gives you lemons make lemonade,’
and poem ‘The Serenity Prayer,’ have been and will continue to be helpful for you.
Amazing Life!
So, what does life look like with milk on the floor, worst-case scenarios dancing in your head, lemonade in your glass and poetry on your lips? Pretty freaking amazing. Life still has its ups and downs and is chock full of surprises. But you are now armed to view these situations no longer as ‘problem’s but as potential opportunities for growth or at the very least learning experiences. I raised my kids to believe there is only one way to fail at anything. That is to not learn from the process. It doesn’t much matter that you did not accomplish your intended goal, if you learned from the process, then you simply accomplished a different goal….to be a perpetually evolving enlightened human being.
Suggested Reading: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson and Ken Blanchard
The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal
