Wake Me Up: Morning Positivity - Morning Motivation - Managing Life's Ups & Downs

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

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Wake Me Up is made possible thanks to the generous help of our advertisers and premium supporters. If you'd like to support Wake Me Up, listen ad-free, and get access to the entire catalog plus bonus episodes, then follow the link in the show notes to sign up for Wake Me Up Premium. Now before our episode begins, here's a quick word from our sponsors. Hey there, and welcome to Wake Me Up. I'm your host, Tyler, as always, and I'm thrilled that you're here today. Friends, we all know that life has its ups and downs. Nobody can escape this reality, but that's what makes life so beautiful.

That's what makes it an adventure. Today and this week, we're going to be talking about how to accept the realities of life and keep a positive mindset so that we can stay happy and fulfilled no matter our circumstances. And it's important to remember that being fulfilled means more than just day-to-day contentment. It's that inner warmth, confidence, and reassurance you feel when you finally understand who you really are and you're doing what life calls you to do. We'll discuss how to foster this interconnection with yourself so that you can feel deeply satisfied and radiantly alive. But before we dive in today, just take a second to pause and notice how you're feeling right now,

both physically and emotionally. Really ask yourself, how am I doing? And try not to attach a cause, a reason, or a label to these feelings. Just notice them for what they are. And remember that all feelings are temporary. The way you feel right now is just the way you feel right now. And though you may have felt that way before, and you'll probably feel that way again, this feeling will pass.

It will be replaced, both with good and bad. So keeping an even keel and clarity of mind is crucial to making sure that you're as happy and fulfilled as you can be. So take a deep breath in, fill all the way up, and collect all of those feelings you just noticed. And as you exhale, just let them float away, gone with the wind. Do that again. Inhale, fill up, and collect anything you're feeling, then exhale and release those feelings. Great.

Now feel free to go about your morning routine. whatever it is you like to do to start your day. And while you do that, let's dive deeper into this topic of how to manage life's ups and downs. As humans, our natural tendency is to want to explain things, to give a reason, to label them as black and white or good and bad, but life really isn't that way. Everything has at least a little bit of good and bad. it. Everything is in the vast in between. It's not white or black. It's gray. To take a simple example, you might view back pain as a bad thing and feel angry or frustrated when it occurs. And you might try to figure out what caused it and how you could have done something differently to not feel

that pain. But the truth is that our pain, whether it's physical or emotional, is there to teach us something. Every single moment of suffering that you endure in life is an opportunity for growth. Successful, fulfilled people use pain to their advantage. When something painful happens, they lean into that experience rather than trying to shove it away and hide it.

They see setbacks as part of the path towards their best self and not as a failure. One of the best things you can do when you're going through a rough time is to sit with it and not run away. There is an incredible sense of understanding that happens when you choose to be with your pain rather than escape it. You get to experience a sense of contentment, knowing that all things in life are part of the journey. Remember, nothing is perfectly bad and nothing is perfectly good. It all just is. And that's an incredibly powerful concept to really feel on the inside.

And that sounds really great, but let's be real. We all run away from our pain in different ways. We all do it, whether it's being a workaholic, self-medicating, or leaning into an old bad habit. And we use this as a tool to avoid pain, because it's sometimes easier. to do what we know will take the pain away in the short term. But the more we push it away in the short term, the worse it gets. As adults, it's our responsibility to undo old patterns and habits that we've developed over time and no longer serve us.

When we get the chance to step up and do the hard work to improve ourselves, we get that much closer to understanding who we really are and doing what we're really meant to do. My friend, pain is part of life. And it's not something we can or should try to avoid. Without pain, we would never know what pleasure is. As the Buddha said, pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. In other words, how we perceive pain is what makes or breaks us.

At the end of the day, being alive, has its challenges, we can't avoid that. But it's how we react that determines our ultimate happiness. So never forget that you have the power to choose. No matter who you are, you get to choose how you want to ride this roller coaster of life. Think of your mind as the eye of the storm. And this storm, it never stops. Things are happening and swirling around you all the time.

Sometimes things randomly get hurled your way when you're least expecting it. But it's in the storm that you find excitement. It's in the storm that there's a journey and a story. And that's why you choose to remain calm through it all and make the most of this journey. My friend, you are so much. more resilient than you think you are. For as long as we have existed, humans have survived through war, through famine, through disease, and we absolutely will continue to do that going forward. You are one of those humans. And even if you haven't lived through a catastrophe, you have already

been through so much. And you're still here, waking up every morning, and going about your day the best that you can. Remember that we are all in this journey together. Every human has a different story, but we are all going through virtually the same thing, the ups and downs of life. As long as we are alive, we are all here, and we're flowing with the current together.

So when life knocks you, you down, know that you have what it takes to get back up again, and that when you get up, you'll be even better than before. Choose to see each challenge as a learning experience, as a necessary turn in your own path. Pima Chodran wrote, to be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake, is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no man's land. To experience each moment as completely new and fresh.

The true beauty of life is in the unknown and about letting go of the things that you want to cling onto. Letting go brings you freedom. So the next time you get caught up in the challenges of life, remember that you are resilient, Remember that this is a journey, not a single stop. And remember that we are all in this together. Each hurdle is another step towards the greatness of you.

Well, that's all for today's episode. I really appreciate you tuning in and joining me here this morning. I hope you are feeling resilient and inspired to keep going after life and chasing your dreams. Tomorrow, we've got a series of affirmations based on this same theme, and on Wednesday, a really wonderful meditation as well. So I hope to see you back here for both of those episodes. Until then, go out and have an absolutely fantastic day.