Shuffle Your Own Cards: in Search for Meaning Making

Life is too short to spend it in a war with yourself, let alone with others. In the midst of all that makes us stressed or depressed, you can still try to find calm inside the heart. Let go of images and scenarios how life or you should be. Perhaps, life is too short for that one big meaning, and perhaps the meanings are small and many but you need to choose to see them.

When life feels as if giving you a regular beating, do not lose sight of the fact that you have a choice. You can feel defeated and surrender or you can feel defeated but NOT surrender to it. You can shuffle your own cards and even if you have a bad hand, to learn how to use it strategically.

Perhaps, you are given a chance to learn more about yourself and others, to reveal a character trait that was not seen before. Perhaps, you need to withdraw, to reflect and to become more in tune with yourself and to reclaim your choices. You can begin to recognise the lack of gentleness and compassion in others. It can shock and scare you. Nonetheless, let it be and do not protest against it internally. The agitation and the impulsive desire to do something to stop the psychological pain can be misleading in its persuasion to act. Instead, learn to sit with it until the storm passes ( it will, it always does!) . Seek compassion and connection with those other ones, the non-judgmental, the respectful ones. They are also the bringers of hope and meaning.

Existence is a constant struggle between pain and pleasure, a continuum between life and death, good and bad. However, you are not just a product of your circumstances needing to carry the legacy of your own painful experiences. There are choices and there are freedoms.

Do you acknowledge that you strive to secure a place on this continuum?

Do you accept or reject parts of yourself in order to do so?

Do you agree that there is freedom in your choice?

How do you own or deny this freedom?

Can you grasp this freedom further?

Remember, that when feeling lost and meaning is missing, you can still choose to survive. You can also chose to remember that it may feel like despair but it is not without an end.