I use the word escape a lot in this blog. When we aren’t entirely happy with something in our life, we generally try to escape from the issue that’s causing us stress. Many people have different forms of escapes from their everyday lives. For some, it can be something as serious as alcohol or drugs, for others it can be a cup of tea or a walk around the neighbourhood.
As part of my routine to keep in shape, I take a walk most evenings. The other night I decided to walk along Malahide beach. I strolled along and began to ask myself why I seemed to be losing so many battles in life. Everything seemed to be imploding on me all at once. My mum lost her ability to breathe without the assistance of an oxygen machine, work and college related hassle seemed to be crashing down on me and all whilst I was trying to rebuild myself after a breakup.
I got a little upset thinking about all these things….. and then I noticed the motion of the waves moving back and forward. I was distracted. My train of thought changed and I noticed the tide was moving in. It taught me a simple life lesson. Just like the ocean retreats, just like it seems it’s been beaten back when the tide goes out, every night it will come back blasting its waves over land, sometimes causing havoc and destruction and the tide will eventually move inland.
We can learn from this, that although we may sometimes feel we’re losing some battles in our lives, there is always the opportunity to bounce back. I realised I wasn’t losing so many battles in life; I still had the opportunity to fight back and beat them. So, we can choose to escape, we can choose to ignore our issues, or we can choose to face our problems head on in the arena of life.
Imagine yourself in a boxing match with something that’s bothering you. That something may have beaten you up bad, but always remember, that just like in life, a boxing match has rounds. Just because you lost round one, doesn’t mean you can’t stand up, dust yourself off and beat the shit into your problems for round two.