The Cycles That Shape Us: Why Tough Times Don’t Last Forever
Life isn’t one long struggle — it moves in pieces.
Each difficult period has a beginning, an end, and a reason for who you become next.
When you notice these cycles, tough times stop feeling endless and start revealing what they’re shaping in you.
Life is tough. Even for those of us whose lives are fairly comfortable, it can still feel like a grind to get through the day. And for many of us, those feelings can be magnified so much that life becomes unbearably difficult to deal with.
And to make things worse, the people on the outside looking in don't have any idea how difficult our lives are. Usually because we hide it and don't share it with anyone. So let's look at what makes it difficult.
First of all, there are periods when our lives are harder because of things we have to do or because people are making demands of us. But this is not constant. These are finite lengths of time which could last for days or even weeks.
And the backdrop to this may be that our lives are not in a good place, but these times, when they start, are extra difficult and then they finish. But we need to look at why we have these things in our lives? Obviously, as with all of our experiences, these things influence and challenge us, but we need to look deeper into how they affect us.
First of all, when we are in the middle of these experiences, we use something that's not good and that makes it difficult for us to get through these tough times. It's a habit our brains have when dealing with stress, and that is very simply that we don't fully accept what is happening to us. And when we try to mentally hide from what is happening, it makes things more difficult to get through.
Unfortunately, we can't really choose how our brains react, and in fact, we don't need to. But it's important to know what's going on inside us. But the main way these things affect us is that they slightly change who we are so that the next time it happens, we will react differently.
The second thing that makes our lives tough is the little health issues that plague us. I'm talking about things like headaches, pains, and other minor conditions. When we have them, these health issues make every part of our day difficult to perform.
But to find out what they do for us, we need to look at when they happen. Usually, when we have already been experiencing a tough period in our lives, these pains begin and of course, they make everything else seem even worse than it really is. But when the pain is over, we feel different.
How we feel about everything has changed. And more than that, a new period has started and the mood has altered. After a difficult time, we should notice these changes.
Nothing has really changed on the outside, but on the inside, we are slightly different. But of course, after some time has passed, we start the process again. Another tough time starts, and we repeat the pattern.
Our lives are not just long timelines; they are pieces of time with beginnings and ends.
A quiet note.
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When It Feels Worse Than It Should - Regain Balance
Insights into mindfulness in daily life and how it can shape your perspective. Discover how these ideas can support your mindfulness in daily life in everyday life.
Our own lives are undoubtedly the most important thing to all of us. How we feel in every waking second of every day is experienced by each of us and is personal to us. We spend every moment with ourselves, and those small details make up the fabric of our lives.
And it’s the small details that are important to me. But I don’t think I was always THIS sensitive. I feel like the volume has been turned all the way up on the seemingly trivial things that happen in my life.
The small things mean a lot to me. Sometimes someone will say something to me, and my mind just keeps replaying it over and over. It’s usually something that doesn’t sit well with me.
Something that feels wrong, that just grates against my mind and leaves a sore spot. Or something will happen at work, and I just can’t forget about it. Again, something that rubs me the wrong way.
And it’s usually when someone is trying to manipulate a situation to their own ends or when they have misunderstood a situation. Of course, I can’t control what thoughts pop into my head, so it’s like my mind is beating me into submission by replaying these things over and over again. And when it feels like I’ve had enough, it stops.
And again, these are small problems that are made more important and annoying because of the constant repetition of them in my mind. And a lot of the things that give me the most stress are things that I’m sure someone on the outside looking in would think are trivial. Even I think sometimes that if I’m stressing about this small thing, then my life must be pretty good.
But the level of that stress is so disproportionately high that it’s like some torture. At certain times, my life somehow feels much worse than it should feel. Because of this magnification of the small things, I’m constantly micromanaging my life and making sure I pay close attention to all the small details because if I don’t, then it brings even more trouble for me.
Another part of my life where the dials are turned up is on social arrangements. I will turn down invitations to things which are most likely going to be fun because, for no rational reason, I feel strongly that I don’t want to do it. Of course, nobody truly knows why they like one thing and not another, or why they prefer to do this thing over that thing.
But the feeling I have is not exactly that I wouldn’t like to do it. When I get invited to something, I don’t want to do it because it feels wrong, like something I shouldn’t do, or it would be better if I didn’t do it. And until I deal with it and decline the offer, it will keep coming back to my thoughts again and again until I’m sick of thinking about it.
Fortunately, though, there is another way because often the thing that feels wrong will be canceled and will just go away by itself. So through my own actions and through things that happen outside of my control, I am able to always do the things that I should do and not do anything that I shouldn’t.