Maria Arpa
This week
Great expectations
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
Choosing your experience of life
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This famous quote from Dale Carnegie intended to teach us that good can come out of any situation. In the practice of restorative justice we work on the principle that victims usually have 3 questions.
- Why Me?
- Why now?
- What can I do to stop this happening to others?
This week I want to focus on Question 1.
Bring hooked on “Why Me?” is an unrealistic assessment of the human condition which, left unattended will become an ongoing source of suffering. Another way to make peace with life’s harsh realities is to consider, ‘Why not me?’ Asking this question reminds us that there were no promises at birth that life would be without adversity so a life of expectancy that adversity will not knock on our door is likely to create more pain and suffering than accepting that life is sometimes painful.
This doesn’t mean accepting injury, loss or harm that is concocted by humans, and that’s where question 3 matters. Many amazing things happen out of question number 3 sometimes resulting in laws being changed.
Maria’s Mindfulness Moment
Moving from Why Me to Why Not Me has been one of the driving factors for my involvement in social change. It is liberating to be free of Why Me.
The Wednesday Whisper
What unrealistic Why Me situations are you holding on to?
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