I sometimes think that my life should be wonderful all the time. Sometimes when it’s not so wonderful, I feel cheated or like something has gone terribly wrong. Then I learned that it’s not always supposed to be wonderful. In my scriptures I read, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.” Then from my coaching teacher I learned that humans experience life as 50% positive & 50% negative. I wanted to argue with my teacher that my life is about 75% positive and 25% negative. One morning I was driving near my home in the beautiful Snohomish Valley just after sunrise. It was breath-taking. It was a little foggy so everything looked soft and romantic. The sun was shining on the mountains and on the farms. My heart caught in my throat and I was full of joy – so full of joy that I could hardly stand it. I loved the feeling & I tried to hold onto it. JOY! JOY! JOY! A minute later I was down in the valley with a lot of other cars and another driver did something to irritate me. It came to me that this was the 50/50 my teacher taught about.
Life isn’t supposed to be wonderful all the time. There are supposed to be peaks and valleys, sunshine and shadows. When we think it’s supposed to be different than that, we sometimes cause ourselves more pain than if we accept the valleys and shadows.
A few weeks ago, I attended BYU Education Week with my daughter. Education week is 5 days filled with classes about a variety of topics that educate and inspire the attendees. I LOVED it. I love the learning, I loved being with my daughter, I loved being in a hotel, I loved eating in restaurants, I loved buying new artwork, I loved hanging out with my Utah family. The entire experience was so AMAZING! I got home late on a Saturday night and taught Relief Society on Sunday. It was a great lesson and I thought it went well. Sunday afternoon I felt like I fell off a cliff. I was sad and depressed. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday goes by and I still feel sad. I talked to my coach about how I was feeling – I thought something terrible has happened and it was going to be this way forever. She asked me if I have ever noticed that when something is really up, there is usually a corresponding down. As soon as I realized that this was supposed to happen, nothing was wrong, I was just reacting to the high from Education Week, I felt better. Worrying that something was wrong with me actually made me feel worse.
Have you noticed that your life is full of ups and downs? Do you think it means that something is wrong?
What would happen if you just accepted that it is part of life?
