Strengthening the Divine Muscle of Choice

If the goal of doing something is just to get through it – then why do it all? What does “getting through” even look like?

It’s safe to say that we’ve all thought about what we would do if the pandemic went away tomorrow, and restrictions were lifted.

A charged avalanche of visceral, vivid visions of all the things we’ve been missing….sitting outside in our favorite cafe, traveling, taking classes or workshops, squeezing vegetables at the farmer’s market, kibitzing with the vendors, comparing recipes….having as many people as you want at your bbq, or wedding, going to the theatre or even just hugging a friend.

It’s easy to imagine. An endless array of possibilities.

When we think about what’s been taken away from us, we are suddenly hyper aware of what we once took for granted. We’re reminded of the things maybe we hadn’t appreciated as much when we did have them.

It was back in August when I started writing this, so this next bit was somewhat prescient. I said:

“Although I truly do believe that a vaccine will be created and things will “resume to normal” eventually…… what if they don’t?”

I wasn’t suggesting that we waste any time fretting over it, but rather posing the question of whether there might be value in the exercise of “imagining” what we would do if tomorrow we found out the pandemic was never going to go away?

What comes to mind? Not as easy to imagine I’m guessing. It’s difficult to access the world of possibility when we feel victimized by things that are out of our control.

Stephen Covey put it really well:

“If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. It’s about connecting again with your own uniqueness and then defining the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which you can most happily express and fulfill yourself.”

Okay, I’ll go first.

Wait…is this like grief? Wondering/dreaming/fixating on what we might be doing if….I know sometimes we get trapped in looking the experience through the lens of how things would be different “if only…”

In his seminal work “Man’s Search for Meaning” Viktor Frankl’s accounts of surviving 4 years in a Nazi Death camp has moved millions of readers with his descriptions of life lived and lessons learned for Spiritual survival. Although he managed to survive, he lost both his parents, his brother and his pregnant wife. His book is based on his own experience, and the stories of many of his patients, and highlights the idea that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.

He says:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl

So, summer has passed, and here we are in the winter of a new year, and, as predicted, human innovation has prevailed, and several vaccines have been created since I started writing this.

Like Viktor Frankl, many of us have experienced great loss during this difficult time and “just getting through” was often the very best we could do – and that is perfectly okay.

But in the interest of an antidote to the limitations of the mindset that keeps us wishing things were different or waiting until things are better, I invite you to consider the opportunity of seeing things as they are, through a wider lens and strengthening that divine muscle of choice. Opening up to possibilities.

We are strong. Coping or just getting by is inevitable – we always “get through” but how we do it is up to us.

In the wise words of the Dalai Lama – Pain is inevitable – suffering is optional.

Listen to Audio Version here!

Published in Collaboration with:

Also by Lisa Hopkins:

Discovering Our “WHO”

Moving Through “Paralysis by Analysis”

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