Can wanting to share only the good that happens deprive someone else of hope to overcome their own life’s challenges?

Only you can break the chain

Domino is a friend and comedic motivational writer that I’ve worked with for years.  She said, “I have been down in the dumps for weeks and can’t shake it.  People come to my blog to get inspired, they don’t want to hear my problems, they want to walk away lifted up, not dragged down.”  This is a Universal dilemma we all face at some point.  Age 29, age 39 and age 58, age 80 and 87 are years that, astrologically, the Saturn Return and Uranus Opposition occur.  These transits involve life review and personality integration.  It is ongoing and cyclic.  Some people find it hard.  It can be challenging, but it does not have to be hard.  One key is having developed your will to be strong enough to allow you discipline of mental focus. But she already knows that.    Her situation is that she feels she cannot write about her life when it is NOT going well.  That she can’t write about the thoughts that trouble her and the problems she faces.  I told her that would allow more people to relate to her, since she IS a positive and uplifting person and it’s of value to read  how she navigates her life; what processes she uses to keep herself sane when madness reigns on the homefront.

Simply put, share the good times and the challenges because there is always someone – or tens of thousands of someones – who are going through the same thing you are.   You feel isolated and alone, even among people.  No one understands, there’s no one you can talk to.  You feel everyone has forsaken you, even God if there is even one of those.   Write about it while you’re in the emotion of it.  You don’t have to share it immediately, but write while you’re in the emotion of it.  That gives you a roadmap from where you are now to where you will be when you’ve overcome the situation.  Once you’ve resolved the challenge, add that part of the story to what you wrote about the problem.

That is how you perform seva, service to your fellow man.  By sharing with them an example of a challenge you had, how hopeless you felt in the midst of it, and how you overcame it.  That is how you give hope to troubled souls who are going through many of the life issues you are.  If he can feel this way and keep going, then so can I.  

Never deprive someone of hope, it may be all they have.  Domino took my suggestion and began writing of the mess parts of her life were in.  These became some of her most popular posts.  In the writing of it, she began to find the humor in it.  It was transformational for her, since it changed the tone of “her problems” to something lighter and more manageable.

This is how the Universe tricks us into helping ourselves.  We think we’re doing our fellow man a favor by sharing how we navigate life issues as they arise, when in fact all the while we are teaching ourselves, awakening ourselves, self actualizing ourselves.  That friends get to come along in the process?  That’s the cherry on top!