Turning negatives into positives

[Jolly_Chaplin]

Ever feel like everything happens to you?

Feel like something wrong is just bound to happen in any given experience?

Instead, think ‘Things are happening for me.’ The key element here is seeing things as an opportunity. A chance to change, grow, become a better person by picking that path which is true to yourself.

You don’t have to make a huge leap. It is the accumulation of small steps that creates your better life. Don’t let one failure determine your whole future.

Just because someone stumbles and loses themselves along the way, it doesn’t mean they’re lost forever.

[ecomama]

Lol it's the day for AWESOME threads to start.

What a GREAT thread topic Jolly Chaplin! Thankyou and a belated warm Welcome to the forums!

LOVE this topic.

I never feel like "everything" happens to me, alot of crap has happened but such is life lol!

I also never use the word "failure" ever... I prefer to use the phrase "learning opportunity" lol.

I could safely say I've had many many learning opportunities!
I bet we ALL have and that's okay.

We are organic gardeners in our family and I made up a saying that I use during trying times...
"What do we do when life gives you shyte?"
The kids answer, usually in unison "We turn it into FERTILISER!".
And indeed we do. Now what can we learn?.... the answers are quite funny some times.

Some times it's VERY difficult to see what the learning opportunity IS... but it's there.
Some where.

At one point I really couldn't see WHAT I could be learning from an extremely lengthy and trying time.... I meditated and Prayed.... then waited..... the answer came to me 'Now you can empathise with MORE people and help them too.'

Some stuff just can't be studied until we learn it. I can name some significant traumas here but you all know what I'm talking about.

Once we go THROUGH something SO significant, so traumatic, so horrible, we can be humbled that we survived.

Where there is breath, there is HOPE. And Hope anchors the soul.

We can practice Gratitude that we are STILL here.
My children and I do.

A funnier example happened TODAY!
I see my garden and pot plants ripped apart and emptied by the Brush Turkeys quite alot here lol.
It drives us kind of crazy tbh... but today, wow, it took my breath away to see a BABY brush turkey come into my garden!
It is SO tiny and SOooo cute!

I thought THAT'S why I plant all this stuff. It's not just for us, it's for you too little bubba.

I learnt something valuable today and it gives me such JOY to see the babies.
I cohabitate with nature. It's our wonderful choice to do so.

So it is also our choice in how we see trying times.

Peace and many Blessings to you all
EM

[Jolly_Chaplin]

Hehe. That’s right! Thanks! Yep. Bad things WILL happen. We all know it, but we all need to ACCEPT it.

The essence of suffering is fear, I believe. Best solutions come from a sound mind.

Sounds great. Connection to the NATURAL world is what we all need. You’re definitely doing it right. Great to hear that.

Haha. That’s a good saying. You can make something beautiful even out of ‘waste’.

Nice to here you found a solution. Helping people is a great natural remedy. Yep. That’s right.

You can only bury problems for so long before they get the better of you. They need attention and solving.

Yep. We must believe that it is something to be grateful for. Nothing lame about showing appreciation for something as simple as sunshine.

That’s cool. Nature is beautiful!

We have 2 sheep at home that our family loves. They’re part of the family. Lovely little beings 😊

[quirkywords]

olly,

This year after my house and shop were destroyed by the fires and I had to move away from my close community, I thought why me and what I had done.

then covid came and people who were affected by the fire were neglected. A few more personal bad things happened to me and my loved ones. i go to the stage where I wondered what bad thing would be next. I suppose I didnt see that as negative but realistic.

I never lost hope and one good thing is happening soon. I think you need to acknowledge loss grief pain and bad luck.. Then you try to cope as best you can and cry and help others, that helped me.

Thanks again for topic.

[ecomama]

Nature is indeed so beautiful.

I'm out the front feeding my rescue chickens atm lol. One little darling is blind, she's a battler!
She takes extra care, love and attention but she's the sweetest thing lol.

I have to stay with them for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon so they get a decent feed. It's stops the other birds taking over.

So I'm immersed in nature from dawn till dusk... my workplace is stunning.

So cute you have sheep! lol.

There's a thing called Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD). My children and I can recognise it in some families. My eldest daughter has had the most incredible success with a family on the autism spectrum merely by taking them on bushwalks, to the beach, feeding horses and animals etc.

The improvements in this family are remarkable. The child who never spoke at 10yo is now talking to us in full sentences! It's miraculous.

But this wouldn't have come had we not had the empathy and understandings.

My negative of having lantana cover 600sq m of my property would not have become a positive had I not decided to SEE it that way.
LOL... still trying to find MORE but these are the positives so far:
- it protected my young fruit trees when I had no capacity or time to care for them
- it's given us LOTS of mulch to create terraces and level ground
- it gave me urgent reason to face the PTSD and I realised hiring a sweet gardener helped 'co-regulate' me - HUGE discovery and progress since
- burning it has given us lots of ash to deter Brush Turkeys from dismantling our composts
- the ground underneath is TEEMING with worms! The chickens had a field day lol!

Love your work Jolly!
EM