Trying to pull myself out of a slump, I picked up Hal Elrod’s “Taking Life Head On: How to Love the Life You Have While You Create the Life of Your Dreams“. It’s the story of a young man who faced tremendous challenges after being hit head on by a drunk driver going 70 mph.
His enthusiasm for life and determination to progress despite all odds is infectious and it did the trick. I felt better and started moving forward again. Primarily because he reminded me of something I had forgotten. Life is full of difficult things and a lot of them we have no control over. It is our desire to change what we cannot control that often makes us miserable. During the longest part of my recovery, I reminded myself constantly that the past cannot be changed, edited, forgotten or erased. It can only be accepted.
When faced with circumstances out of his control, Hal would tell himself “can’t change it”, releasing the struggle and letting go. Surrender. It’s a powerful thing. It doesn’t mean you’re giving up. In fact, it’s incredibly empowering. Because it releases you from the struggle of focusing on the things you can’t change and frees up the energy to change the things that you can.
I cannot change the past. It is over and done and nothing I do can bring it back and be done differently. But I can craft my today, choosing to live with gratitude, hope, and the peace of surrender.
Hal Elrod went on to create “The Miracle Morning”, a daily routine that incorporates silence, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading, and scribing (journaling). His acronym for these practices? S.A.V.E.R.S.
Why S.A.V.E.R.S for survivors? Because if you want to change your life you have to go at it in a purposeful way, making your choice to grow and improve a daily habit. Silence, in the form of meditation and mindfulness, affirming your choice to be whole and well, visualizing the person you want to become and the life you want to lead, engaging your body in healthy movement, reading to learn how to heal, and scribing to release negative thoughts and emotions; that’s a powerful prescription for personal change.
If you want to learn more about The Miracle Morning, read Hal’s book “The Miracle Morning: The Not So Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life”.
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If you would like to learn more about therapeutic tools to change your life, visit http://www.annemarck.com/mentoring