An Inspirational Dose from a Spiritual Quote: “When it hurts...observe, life is trying to teach you.”
6 Steps To Help Yourself Using This Spiritual Quote as a Guiding Principle
I love inspiring quotes written by enlightened and awakened masters. This quote touched my heart center. Let me share how I use this quote as my guiding principle in life and formulated my own 6 steps. You can use some of these steps if it is applicable in your life context.
Let’s begin.
The Quote: “When it hurts, observe, life is trying to teach you.”—Siddartha Gautama
How I Apply This Quote in My Life:
I always remain alert and attentive at every moment. When anything positive or negative happens, I ask myself what message the universe is sending to me.
I look at situations in two ways: it hurts because I was either ignorant for the moment or I just met another ignorant person.
Studying pain or hurt is a skill. Nowadays, we develop the tendency to externalize blame and practice rationalizing to cope with difficult situations. For example, “It’s not my fault but someone else’s,” or, “I failed the exam because my lecturer wasn’t good.” In some cases, our perspectives about other people or our own situation may or may not be true.
I practice these 6 steps to handle difficult people or difficult moments that hurt me.
Step 1: Inward Vision. If it hurts, I look inside myself and study myself first. Am I the one unconsciously causing problems for myself? Which parts of me triggered, caused or maintained my problem? Am I falling back to the old patterns that hurt me in the past?
I’m honest with myself when I check if my own unresolved issues or unhealed parts of me led me to the problem, pain or hurt.
Step 2: Outward Vision. I observe the person who is bringing the pain, problem and hurt to me and their poor ways of communication. I study how they make a bad situation worse, or how their energy-draining vibes function towards me.
Step 3: Confirm the root/residence of the problem. If I’m very clear that I’m not the one causing the hurt to myself out of my own ignorance, then I start paying attention to where it is coming from.
Step 4: Deal with the Situation or Let Go. I can either choose to deal with the problem with boldness or in some situations it is wise to let go of the troubling situation, person, or communication that is taking a toll on my peace.
I can choose to work on it or work around it. How do I do that?
4a) Work On It: I can choose to deal with the hurt, pain or problem by applying a calm, intelligent and assertive approach.
4b) Work Around It: I can distance myself and choose to leave what is hurting me from the outside.
When dealing with problems, I keep in mind two things:
A) Work on it: If we never reprimand negativity that happens against us, we’re rewarding the negativity. No reprimand might lead to rewarding. Never allow this to happen.
B) Work around it: We can talk to a person who is intelligent enough to see their problems but not to a fool who blindly and rigidly thinks they are always right. Fools are usually “dead sure” most times. Debating, arguing, or working hard to solve problems with a fool who dislikes exploring the truth… is like slapping a housefly that is sitting on my face.
Step 5: I learn the lessons that take place in every hurtful situation. I write it down in a book like a journal.
I ask myself:
A) What did I learn about myself from the painful problem or hurtful situation?
B) What did I learn from these life lessons?
Pain and hurt also increase our intelligence and self-awareness. They make us more mindful in dealing with similar situations that arise in the future. As we become more and more aware, we will soon be an expert when dealing with fools and foolish situations.
Step 6: I remind myself not to repeat the same mistakes. I strongly believe that the universe repeats problems/tough situations if lessons aren’t well-learned.
Although it is good to avoid some problems, I told myself not to be a completely avoidant person who avoids challenges. Always avoiding risks and challenges may cause me to lose precious life lessons and hinder my own personal growth.
I practice looking at what hurts me and then I work on it or work around it. I remember the lessons from the hurtful situation to make tomorrow a better day.
If you like these 6 steps. You can apply them and also teach them to someone who can benefit from them.
Thank you for reading my insights.
This article was published in MEDIUM on 25 June 2022.
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Sending everyone love and light.
You can also read my empowering personal spiritual guidebook, “The Cosmic Romance with Existence,” to awaken and strengthen the light within you.