Meditation: Chopra, Creating Abundance: The Seeds of Success Length: 15 minutes Where: Office/Guest Room, Los Angeles How It Felt: Empowering
Today is Indigenous People’s Day (finally, officially) and National Coming Out Day. Both exist to show support for those that have suffered. Both remind us that being White, straight, and cis is not the end-all-be-all, and that we should question the idea that there is anything “better” about that existence. Both are humbling for many and, hopefully, empowering for those that are being honored.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how suffering shapes us. I have this term, “Superpeople,” that I use to describe a person who has suffered, survived, and healed in a powerful way. When someone hasn’t had an easy life, they can choose one of two paths: they can let their pain burrow inside of them without facing it head on, causing it to seep onto those around them; or, they can do the work to reshape into a better, stronger, more loving and empathetic form than they would have otherwise.
We can choose to turn our pain into strength and kindness.
I had an acting teacher who told us to “turn our shit into gold.” I like that.
I’m watching someone extremely close to me start to face his demons, to really accept that he’s dealt with abuse from people close to him in his life, and to begin to understand how that’s shaped him. He was at a fork in the road when I met him- he could have let the pain and trauma continue to beat him down, turning him into a person he didn’t like and wasn’t proud of. Or, he could leave the situation, get some space, and start to heal.
He chose the second one, and it’s taken years and baby steps to start the work, but he’s doing it. And before my eyes he’s transforming into someone who is doing and will continue to do amazing things. He’s inspiring people, and helping them on their journeys. He’s growing into the man he knew he could be, and it’s awesome. Literally- it fills me with awe.
Chopra said during the meditation today that “every failure contains the seed of success” and I love that. There is nothing dark or difficult that doesn’t contain a “power up” somewhere inside it, if we’ll look for it. I wouldn’t take back a single hard thing that’s happened to me- not my father’s alcoholism, my mother’s struggle with mental illness, my own depression and mania, the challenge of growing up as an atheist and bisexual in a conservative small town, the assaults, the poverty, the eating disorder- none of it. Not one bit. Because I was lucky, and I survived, and I used it all to make myself into a better human being, and that’s what matters.
And now I have this tool that I will never lose. The minute things start to go bad, I know there is a lesson to look for, something the Universe is telling me. I know there is a way to grow from it, so I don’t despair. That’s a powerful thing to have in your back pocket. It keeps me from ever going under, no matter how deep things get.
The world is imperfect and full of people who can’t handle the pain and fear they have inside, so we can’t escape life without being hurt. We just have to choose.
Do we want to be angry, broken people full of blame, grudges, and bitterness?
Or do we want to own it all and become Superpeople?
My Year of Meditation 