A friend once asked me that after a particular challenging couple of weeks. My answer was “I don’t know how … but I know it will” following immediately by “Boy, that was a wanky answer, wasn’t it?”
I laughed it off, focused rather on not tripping over my tired feet.
Does it though – work out as it is meant to be? How do some people go through life somehow able to handle anything that life throws at them with grace – not only handle and survive, but thrive? Maybe some people just don’t it as bad as others.
It is the easiest thing in the world to start comparing. It is also incredibly arrogant, self-centred and presumptuous to assume that we can fully understand what other people are going through – to assume we know what strength it takes for them to go through life with grace, or just how close they are to snapping, or what it was that was the final straw.
So how do I know things will work out? I don’t know … but I do know that it will, even if I can’t see a way through. Maybe it comes from being able to decide what the important things in life are (and by extension what the unimportant ones are). Maybe it comes from having come through a multitude of struggle. Maybe it comes from having failed miserably time and time again. Maybe it comes from a belief in a higher power. Maybe it comes from self- belief, or maybe it comes from knowing that all “bad” things pass, or that “bad” things are only “bad” because of our personal association of the concept of “bad”. Maybe it comes from needing to believe in something other than what I see in the world.
Or maybe it’s just a combination of all of those things. The world can be an ugly place, filled with insecurity, fear, blindness, rage and the power to wield all of those things in a guttural way that hurts others – whether wilfully or not.
What I do know is that the key to it lies in my response – and that is fully within my control. No matter how disempowered I am, what I have COMPLETE control of is my response and how I want my response to reflect who I am and who I want to be.
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My name is Eu Jin. I embarked on a career as a professional actor after 20 years in the corporate world. I am a big advocate of personal growth in the performing arts. I dedicate time and energy in performing arts education, specifically in the arena of practical approaches to inner health because I believe that this lays the groundwork for a sustainable career as an artiste.
If you would like to engage in a conversation about a healthy inner life practice, please leave me a message on the "Contact" page of my website and a way to contact you. Thank you.