Life is full of ups and downs, it won’t always be a smooth ride. You can be sure that just as the happy times roll around, so too will the sad times.
Jim Carrey once said, “Learn to dance in the rain.” This saying is of more value than it appears on the surface. Accepting the fact that low times are inevitable, it is wise to learn how to appreciate them better, and extract more value from those wonderful opportunities.
This article serves as a simple reminder, and offers a few points to pay attention to next time you feel lower than you’d like.
+Patterns and Flow
+Increase Your Faith
+Refine Your Vision
+Clean Up the Weeds
+Purify Your Ego
+Unlock Wisdom
Intro
Do you panic as soon as things get tough? Perhaps money has become limited and you’re looking at your next daunting bill. Maybe a loved one passed away and you’re struggling to make sense of it. Or maybe the business you put so much effort into is not yet producing fruit.
Have you developed the ability to appreciate and find joy in the down times? Have you considered the possibility of developing this skill?
In this article, we will cover a few ideas that you can use during your next low point (or “dip”), and extract the most value and power from it as possible.
Patterns and Flow
Fortunately, life operates in cyclical patterns. This can be seen all throughout nature, whether it be the ocean tides, the moon cycles or the changing of the seasons. Every year, you can count on things changing. The same is so with your own mind, your life and your emotions.
It’s normal and common to feel stressed, scared and/or lose faith when things aren’t going well. However, some of the most happy and successful individuals have developed a special peace with these dips. And this is a core character trait that separates some of the most successful individuals from the larger percentage.
There is a certain strength that can be unlocked when you develop a faith and trust in patterns. For every winter, comes a spring. So when you’re experiencing a dip, and have developed a faith that spring will eventually return, you will be more able to stay present and operate efficiently, even though your external reality tells a different story.
Have faith that spring is coming.
Increase Your Faith
Throughout many stories of modern and ancient times, there is a core theme of tribulation. Tribulation is a time where things in life don’t look very good on the outside, and the experiencer is forced to confront the depths of uncertainty.
There is an important reason for this theme. It’s because tribulation forces the experiencer to develop a trust beyond logic and external circumstances. It brings them to the end of themselves, and allows them to reach for powers beyond themselves.
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? +Matthew 6:26
Without tribulation, faith and trust could never be exercised.
If you are on a path of Individuation, and intend to reach the higher heights of life, you can be sure that you will be tested. This is not something to fear, it’s something to be welcomed and appreciated, because you are deemed as someone capable of handling these challenges, and growing even stronger from them.
During these dips, you may feel a lack of faith and hope in circumstances improving. Use these times to feel deeply, and look to increase your faith and trust in the process. Remember that things will improve, and that you can build strength from the resistance that you are currently in.
Next time the challenges roll around, you will have an increased capacity to trust your way through them. You may become the pillar of stability that others look to when things get a little rough.
For amazing Christian+based advice on confronting fear, check out this article by Dr. Susan Pazak.
Refine Your Vision (Find Out What Truly Matters)
The dips in life have a way of stripping things away that no longer serve us. During these lower times, we are offered a rare glimpse of new clarity.
These low times have a special way of revealing what truly matters, and who is actually there to support you on your journey.
Take advantage of this special clarity and use it to refine your life into what actually matters.
You may have been focused on obtaining a certain material possession. But when the dip comes around, it may become apparent that it’s not so important. And that the warmth of closer friendship is actually what you unconsciously desire.
Use these times to reflect, and discover what matters the most. The things in life that serve you in the dips, are what will serve as a solid foundation when things pick up. So refine your vision, and find out what you actually (truly) want.
Use these dips, despite challenging, to implement a visualization practice. Or Journaling. Just do something to note what truly matters, so when times do get better, you can use the momentum to orient yourself towards actualizing those things. So the next time challenging times roll around, you will be even better positioned.
For a detailed guide in practicing Visualization, based in the teaching of Neville Goddard. See this guide.
Clean Up the Weeds
There is a certain magic that the dips provide. Even though they can be uncomfortable and stressful, there are always opportunities to take advantage of the shifting perspective.
It is also deeply therapeutic to “clean up the weeds” in your life, and for some reason, the down times have a great way at revealing the areas in life that need refinement.
This could be with your business, or a literal garden. Despite feeling stressed, find some time to apply your mind to your systems (and routine) and see what can be improved.
Whether this be with your own self, like incorporating that old workout routine into your schedule? Cutting back on smoking? Or starting to meditate again. Whatever it may be, identify those things, write them down (or don’t), and yank those weeds.
Then once the good times roll around again, you will be even more refined, and able to harvest a larger amount from them.
Purify Your Ego
Many of us think we are pure from ego, however it is always surprising when a new test comes around and it reveals that there is still pride, or internal states that could use some refinement.
When life strips something away, whether it be a relationship, a material possession, an opportunity or whatever else, it can be easy to slip into-self sabotage mode. However, rather than seeing these times negatively, you can use them strategically.
Some may identify with money, and it gets tighter. Some with a career, and that path is altered. Some with a relationship, and that energy changes. Some with a business dream, and that idea takes a different path.
What is left when something you identify so deeply with is altered? Do you breakdown and give up, or do you reflect on how you can improve it?
The next time something is taken away, or failing, use it as an opportunity reflect on what you can improve.
And take special note of what truly matters when you are in a dip.
Sometimes it is something different than what was once believed to matter.
This process can be deeply satisfying.
Unlock Wisdom
Ultimately, the next time you find yourself in a dip, use it to unlock deeper wisdom. So when you arise from the dip (as you will), you will be even stronger and more capable of operating in life.
Always remember that the dips pick back up into better times. And that you can make those better times even better by extracting wisdom and strength from the sacred dips.
For more details on this, check out our other internal guides. Or for more personal help on your journey, find someone on our Find a Healer page.
Have you recently been in a dip? And did you take anything special away from it? Share below.
