Because when S.H.I.T happens, we grow.

I always get grins (or a glare from the stuffier attendees) from my workshop participants when I bring up the topic of S.H.I.T. It’s definitely one of my favorites, but that may be because I like to stir the pot, and yes that pun was totally intended.

S.H.I.T is anything that creates an upset in your life. Lost your job? S.H.I.T. Wrecked your car? S.H.I.T. Bad diagnosis at the doctor’s office?

S.H.I.T.

Spiritual

Human

In

Transition

Each of the above scenarios would create an upset in your life, and when it did, what would you do? How would you handle it? Cry? Lash out at loved ones? Turn to vices? You can choose your immediate reaction, and you can choose to complicate things worse or simply accept it as it is. Because when it’s all said and done, it’s always the same. When you experience S.H.I.T., you learn. You grow. You evolve into a better version of yourself.

When we’re at that point along our path that all the “bad” things that could happen are happening, and we’re quickly approaching our breaking point, we have to remember: this is transition. This is S.H.I.T. Our spirit is trying to get our attention, and we have to ask ourselves, “What am I missing here? What is my lesson? What am I taking with me when I walk away from this? How will I grow from this S.H.I.T?”

Once we begin asking these questions, we’re far more conscious of our reactions to this transitory phase, and we begin to hold ourselves accountable for these reactions. We feel the stress and anxiety dissipate and the calm and stillness move in. We begin to accept the “bad” things as just “things” or “life experiences,” and we are grateful for them, because without them we would still be as uninformed and ignorant to these new lessons and growth as we were yesterday. We are granted new lessons, or tools, that we toss in our knapsack to pull out later in life further down our path.

Was there a time in your life when you stopped and realized, “This is SHIT!” How did you transition from the chaos to an open-minded and open-hearted student of life?

Photo by: Wrote, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0