The other day, I came upon the below commentary and felt it was worth sharing: health and happiness are determined by resilience and flexibility. Make sure you set goals for all segments of your life because they determine your direction. Without goals, you are much like the writing below – In a raft without a paddle. Having goals, like having a paddle, will not give you total control but will give you a tool to respond to the events that are out of your control. When the river turns hard right you will be better able to change direction.

Spiritual, health, relationships and financial are all areas that should have goals.

Who is in Control?
By Sandra Abell

This year, with the political situation, the virus situation, and a devastating fire in our area, many people have found that the plans they entered 2020 with have shattered. As a result, we’ve all had to regroup, almost daily as things change.

As with many people, the year that I’d carefully planned last December has unraveled. It’s required continual re-evaluating and adjusting to whatever comes. Of course, my illusion of being in control has disappeared.

I realized that I like to think of life as similar to riding down a river in a raft, without a paddle! When things are good my raft is in the middle of the river, floating quickly and smoothly towards my destination. However, at times the river may suddenly push my raft towards the edge, where the trees overhang and the rocks are plentiful. As my raft continues to move, the low-hanging branches knock me around, we bang into rocks, and all I can do is hang on and try to stay in the boat.

At other times my raft and I may end up in an eddy, where we go around in circles and I feel quite stuck. Or the raft and I might actually go over the falls, where I’ll be thrown into the water, and my job is to remember to breathe as I attempt to climb back into the raft.

Whether my raft is floating effortlessly down the middle, or headed for the falls, is often out of my control.

I remind myself that I might not be in control of what is happening around me, but I am always in control of my reactions to what is going on. My job is to continue to hang on, stay with the raft at all costs, and know that eventually the situation will change for the better.

This is what I’ve been focusing on this year. As we move into 2021 and potential solutions to many of our challenges, I can feel my raft coming out of the eddy and once again moving smoothly down the river towards my destination.

As much as I like to think things happen in my time, I’m reminded once again that everything has its own time, and what I can do is stay optimistic and flexible, remember to breathe and focus on the good, and keep on going. This is the way to get through things as we all continue to move ahead towards a brighter future.

 

Below is a link to the exercises I do every day, first thing in the morning, for 5-10 minutes. Doing this sequence of moves will help you with flexibility, strength and breath. They have served me for 15+ years and I am confident they will help you too. Click here to watch each exercise from my YouTube channel.

God Bless and keep paddling!

If you want to read past blog posts, click here