Use the Challenge to Find Inner Strength

“When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways--either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.”

― Dalai Lama

As I thought about what I wanted to focus on this week, I thought about how we are all living through tragedy right now and all experiencing grief in different forms. I saw this quote (above) from the Dalai Lama and the mixture of hope and inner strength spoke to me. Last week’s classes were centered on patience, but also the mix of patience and hope. So I felt it was fitting to continue on with the idea of hope but adding in inner strength. For it certainly takes strength to have hope. This challenging time we are facing can make us anxious, but we don’t have to stay in that place. We can remain hopeful that there are better days coming and anchor our mind in that hope. 

I read a blog post by Sharon Salzberg recently about having hope in hard times and I really like this sentiment:

“So many people feel torn. Remaining hopeful feels like a useless place to put their energy, but they don’t want to be hopeless either.

I’ve found one insight from my Buddhist tradition to be very helpful in navigating this.  Buddhists tend to be a little skeptical of hope, or, perhaps it’s better to say, we hold hope lightly. The reason is that hope is often about how we want the world to be.  As if life would be perfect if only you could get that thing, person, or experience. Or if the world were better in this or that way.

One can get lost in this craving, which only increases separation from the world as it is.

So, in this tradition, we try to see the world with equanimity instead of craving and fixation. Equanimity — the balance that is born of wisdom — reminds us that what is happening in front of us is not the end of the story, it is just what we can see. This, too, shall pass.

This leads to a different kind of hope, one that resides not in getting what we want, but in the way things actually are in this universe. 

There is hope in remembering that, over the course of my life, things have been bleak before, even bleaker than they are now. I am strong, and there is much within me that responds well to adversity. There is hope in that confidence. “

I hope that you’ll join me in a hopeful practice this week, looking at what cultivates your inner strength. When we bring ourselves to our yoga mat, taking time out for ourselves at this difficult time, it is a hopeful act. Part of maintaining hope during difficult times involves doing the ordinary things that we have done before in order to help sustain our energy. So my hope for you this week is that you’ll think about the times you’ve overcome adversity in the past and what it was that gave you strength at those times. Was it yoga, meditation, being in nature, creativity, connection? Once you have a sense of what it was, I hope you’ll have the strength to find some time for it in your day. 

Love, light, hope and strength,

Molly