One step at a time, walking through life in trust, carries me through with greater ease and peace. Even knowing this, it’s like a slap in the face to be told so in situations of inner and outer turmoil, and I can’t see how it will go. But I know it’s true, and it takes effort to focus on trusting life and looking for the good in the situation, even when it’s hardly noticeable. Everything works out for the best, and life’s journey will be more pleasurable when you focus on the good.
Focusing on the good
It’s a challenge and a relief, and at the same time, it’s energizing to focus on the good. It was what carried me through the five years from being diagnosed with cancer until I got the letter declaring me free of cancer. And a strategy that I’ve always used throughout life. Situations like that big bump require more effort and focus than the small bumps in daily life. I was glad and fortunate that I’d trained my mindset and developed a toolbox by practicing on smaller bumps than those in life.
Practice on small bumps in daily life
Small bumps in daily life are always present, and reactions to the different situations are a journey of self-discovery. And a path to increased inner peace. Acceptance of the reaction, acceptance of the situation, and then looking at the good parts, small and big. And solutions appear in unexpected ways. And experience, expand, learn, and prepare for new situations.
The other day, I was making the daily espresso and spilled the one-litre bottle of water I had on the bench, flooding everything, including the floor. Thoughts that immediately passed through the head, and what I took away from it were, eg, don’t stress, keep the lid on the bottle until pouring it into the machine. Also, I’m fortunate that I can fill my bottle with more fresh tap water, that I have a coffee machine, etc., etc.
Bigger bumps in life
What is a small bump to me might not be a small bump to someone else, and vice versa. There is a need to show respect for how life’s bumps affect us, since we are all different. A big bump for me was when I was diagnosed with cancer, and it made me aware of the mindset that I used throughout life.
It took three hours from diagnosis to surgery, and right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A chock the least to say. I had to trust that all the best was done by everyone around, that whatever the outcome would be, it would be for the best. From then on, I was overwhelmed with thoughts of gratefulness for everything. From research that had led to developing surgery, anesthetics, chemotherapy, health care professionals and their never-ending caring and thoughtfulness, social medicine, to the friend who took me there, I had a phone to call my son, etc, etc. It was a journey of a never-ending list of good things, things to be grateful for, and how fortunate I was to be alive. And what really mattered to me.
A mindset of trust and the simplicity of life
And it was first and foremost health care personnel, but also family and friends, who pointed out what, to them, was an amazing mindset during the healing journey. A mindset that became clear in a way that it had not been before, not even to myself. That it was different and what is said to have an impact on your health, I learned. And then they were asking me to share it with them and others, saying it would be inspiring and helpful.
So, this blog is one of many fantastic outcomes from the journey I’ve traveled through life so far, and especially after the healing journey. Summarizing, it’s all about the simplicity of life and finding ways to live in trust, focusing on what matters the most to me in life, and what I love.
As always, I’m happy to have you as a reader. Please share your thoughts on the text if you feel like it.
Love and hugs,
Cathrin
Picture of “TRUST”, Artist Lena Kriström
