![]() Choosing to thrive pushes you outside your comfort zone. To think and live abundantly and joyfully. To thrive means to make steady progress, to grow healthy and strong. I want to understand and embrace what it means to thrive! To thrive is to be healthy, to flourish. This is not the kind of life I want to lead! Survival means I am afraid to step into my power because I am afraid of the unknown. I am lonely and isolated because it is hard to reach out for help and support when times are tough, and in survival mode, times are always tough. In survival mode, I surround myself with negative people and experiences because it is what I know. ![]() All these things I realize have become so embedded in my daily life. I find myself complaining and blaming others for my circumstances. I am reacting to people and challenges, so I push them away. This way of thinking keeps me small and afraid to grow. When I am in survival mode, I fear failure and see it as wrong. Survival means taking the path of least resistance, living from a place of lack, and feeling stuck. ![]() You are only able to focus on the next thing to be done. The horizon in survival mode is small and closed up. Knowing that if you do what you have always done, you will be OK. It gets even deeper survival is fueled by fear it is always hustling to be able to get by, it is the fear of running out, fear of not having enough, fear of losing everything. My research today showed me that surviving also means other things like barely getting by, a daily grind, feeling unfulfilled, feeling like you are drowning so much in problems that even a simple act of survival feels like a win. If I could provide those things for myself and my family, I considered myself successful. Having the skills necessary to maintain life. Yet, I couldn't seem to change.Īs I read the descriptions of these words in the dictionaries and other’s articles on surviving, I saw that the act of surviving was really meant to provide basic life needs: such as food, clothing, and shelter. I knew that what I was doing was no longer working for me, and I wanted my life to be different. I became comfortably uncomfortable, doing the same thing day in day and day out because I was comfortable. I am often exhausted at the end of the day, thinking there has to be another way. Happy to have made it through another day. The list is long! I blindly put one foot in front of the other trudging through each day. I started to list the things I do when I am living in survival mode. To thrive means to grow or develop and is characterized by success.Īs I dove deeper into the meaning of surviving and thriving, I realized that I was so entrenched in survival mode, I didn't even see that there was another way to live. I found it important to look up the definitions: to survive: is the act of surviving under adverse conditions in my case divorce, jobs I didn’t like, menopause, you get the picture. I no longer want to survive, I want to thrive. As I started to think about this quote, I realized these events do not make me who I am. I have survived many things in my life beginning with my birth. Habits that no longer serve me or allow me to be powerful. I did this the best way I knew how, by doing everything myself and choosing habits that made me feel safe. I have always said, "I am a Survivor" and been proud of it! I identify as a survivor because I have been knocked down and picked myself back up so many times. I was struck this morning by this quote from Maya Angelou, “my mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." It really made me think about how I am living my life.
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