Keep Pushing Through - MetroFamily Magazine
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Keep Pushing Through

by Dorian Quillen

Reading Time: 2 minutesย 

Do you ever wonder how others perceive you as you experience tough times? What would they see if they were really paying attention?

We all have really hard periods of time in our lives for many different reasons. They could be related to relationships, job situations, financial or any number of other things. It is easy to feel overwhelmed, angry and upset when we face particularly difficult times. If you are like me, sometimes I do better than others. Sometimes, I feel strong and capable, yet at other times it feels the situation is so challenging I just feel like coming apart, complaining or getting angry at myself or at others.

We all need people who support and love us through tough times, for sure. None of us will always be totally on our game and up to meet every challenge life throws at us with grace and persistence as we would like. In the really big problems of life, when you need help, ask for it.

One thing I’ve found to be helpful is to be aware of how I think about tough times. For example, if I am using big words like, “overwhelming” and “impossible” to describe just the daily stressors we all face, I am only adding feelings of stress by using words that are disproportionate to the current problem. I have learned to save those words for the really big challenges of life, because we certainly all will have those as well.

It is often more useful to replace these thoughts with statements like, “This situation feels really stressful, but all things considered, it’s just one of those ordinary difficult things of life that I have successfully dealt with many times before.”

My best friend had a favorite saying that has stayed with me after her untimely death – “This too, shall pass.” I used to think, “Yeah, like a kidney stone,” but even in that case, she was right.

Whatever you are facing will pass. You will find a way through. Things will get better.

“Somewhere people may be watching you or me and how they see us handle the adversity that comes into our lives could make a difference in how they handle something they face in their own lives." (Tim Tebow).

Hang in and hang on.

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