I have lost all my books.  My favourite books.  The ones that have been my guides over the last 3 years; are worn and soft from being referred to and held to give me strength.  They are like old friends to me, holding my hand, ensuring I never felt alone.

 

And I hope like old friends, they will reappear when I am least expecting it.

 

I could have done with one of them today.  Ariana Huffington.  One of the friends who took me by the hand to help me to ‘thrive’ after deciding consulting was no longer for me.  Also a time I became more interested in wellbeing and self-care, for myself but also others.  In her book, she shared her ‘wake up call’ experience when she had been driven by money and power, working all hours to achieve success.

 

She explains that she now recognises hard times or difficult periods differently and that she prefers to  ‘live life as if life was rigged in her favour.”  From experience, she can look back, connect the dots, see the wake up calls, and appreciate the triggers were all guiding  and steering her to become who she is today.

 

In my own life, I can look back and can connect many dots and also see the hardships, the painful life situations as ‘redirectors’, moving me to change, to grow, to challenge me to become more.  But I can also see the times when I didn’t see or perhaps chose not to see some of those wake up calls to instil or force a difference, whether it be path or habit, in to my life.

 

I am not sure where I am going on this train of thought.  Perhaps back to unhappiness?  If you don’t pick up on the signs… where does that lead you? It certainly led me to the bottom of the sea in stunned unhappiness and grief.

 

I wrote down in big bold letters, the one thing I am going to continue take forward and also one thing that she so eloquently explained and something that I have been writing about for so long now…

 

HAPPINESS DOESN’T MEAN LESS SETBACKS.  IT IS FACING THOSE SETBACKS WITH GRACE AND MORE UNDERSANDING AND MORE ACCEPTANCE.

 

I would still be my naïve self, if I believed that the ‘setbacks’ I have lived through in the last 4 years were all the setbacks that life was and is going to throw me.  I am sure there will be more.  In fact I am confident.  But from experience, I know that as each future setback arrives at my door, I will be gracious to welcome it forward, to learn from it, to grow from it and use gratitude as a way of understanding and accepting as life giving me a wake up call and a chance to change direction.