in.sight
a newsletter for the eyes of the mind
SERIES 02 | ISSUE 06
We’re all faced with great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations
You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
All of us, and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE of us, goes through life picking up a couple of scars here and there. Sure, some people are scarred more severely and more persistently than others. But everyone will experience some degree of grief, loss, shame, regret, and physical pain, no matter how rich, how beautiful, or how healthy.
Life is, and will be turbulent. In a short span of two decades, I’ve personally been hit with broken bones, broken hearts, and broken relationships. More than my body and psyche can handle at times. There were too many times I was close to giving up. But I’ve also always been curious about what’s on the other side of pain.
My curiosity led me to Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work surrounding dismantling the human belief system. In his book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, he wrote about how even the most excruciating pains of life can be a transformative gateway to great opportunities (Dr. Dispenza himself met with a serious cycling accident that left him with six compressed vertebrae and doctors told him he might never walk again. He then managed to work his way through full recovery and is doing what he’s doing now because of that accident.)
I know. This can sound a lot like a crutch for toxic positivity. When I was in the depths of the gruel, I rolled my eyes as well. However, looking at some of those incidents at retrospect, I’ve been able to see the truth in this statement. BUT it also really depends on whether you’re willing or ready to see it. For me, leaning into the very faint light from the hole at the end of the tunnel has helped me scrape through some dark times. Here’s why:
1. Slashes victim mentality
I’ve lived in “why me” mentality for a very long time. When you’re hit by the life truck again and again, it’s easy to live in that mindset by default. Victim mentality is a tricky one.
Getting out really requires you to face up to all of those stringent beliefs and say hey “Do I really want to keep living this way?”, “Does acting like the world is against me actually stack the odds in my favour?” It took me a lot of mental reframing to get out of it, but reminding myself to see even the faintest light, even in the worst of situations, helped tremendously.
2. Speeds up acceptance
From debt-accumulating family conflict to chronic autoimmune conditions, some things can be really really hard to accept. I mean, how can you when it’s something you need to deal with every single day with potentially no respite?
It sounds counterintuitive. But acceptance is the inevitable way out. I don’t mean letting the ropes go and spiralling down into greater debt or poorer health. Rather it’s letting go of the resentment surrounding it, and forgiving YOURSELF for the many things that have actually been out of your control. Once I’ve accepted and forgiven myself for my “impossible situations” (like debt and disorder), I felt a huge weight lifted from me. And this nicely segues to my next point.
3. Opens you to solutions
Once you’ve freed yourself from the chains of victim mentality and resistance, you begin to see solutions that will allow you to transcend from your pain. This is because you start seeing opportunities that were previously veiled by your old thoughts and emotions. Most times, they’ve always been there, waiting for you. Not only that, your pain turns into your power.
💝 noteworthy
In Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Dr. Joe Dispenza combines the fields of quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics to show you what is truly possible and how to recondition the body and create better health. Not only will you be given the necessary knowledge to change your energy and any aspect of yourself, but you will be taught the step-by-step tools to apply what you learn in order to make measurable changes in any area of your life.
😌 calm corner
As an extension of his book, Dr. Joe explains the importance of paying attention to the things that will help us grow emotionally and mentally, the power of the brain and how it can trap us in the past if we allow it to, and how knowing proper breathwork can significantly help us relieve stress and overcome anxious thoughts.