Rock bottom will teach you lessons the mountain tops never will
Most of us will hit our own rock bottom at some point in life. Whether it’s an illness, the death of a loved one, becoming unemployed with zero savings, a divorce, losing a house, or a horrible accident that changes your daily life. And what we learn about who we are and all that we are made id begins in our pit of despair.
These times when we have lost hope or lost everything that brought us a sense of security or happiness are not only when we learn the most, we actually become so much more than who we were before.
These experiences help us gain experience and wisdom like nothing else ever could. Rock bottom becomes the solid foundation on which we can rebuild our lives. These are the definable moments that can change our lives for the better.
What can we learn in these moments? Here are a few things I have learned through my own descent to rock bottom:
1. I realized how grateful I felt for everything in my life even the small innocuous things. Hitting rock bottom changed my perception of everything and everyone around me. I became more compassionate and accepting of people and where they were on their journey.
2, When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. Rock Bottom takes us out of our comfort zone, so we become more open to all things we were afraid of doing before.
3, You discover who your real friends are. When you have nothing to give or you’ve been treated down and battered, the people who show up are your real friends. You will find that people that you expected to be there, weren’t and the people you never thought would be there for you, were in a genuine way.
4. You learn how to really love yourself and that you are here for a reason. You learn your value and appreciate all that you have overcome. And you refuse to lose sight of your self-worth.
5. You are forced to look at everything that led up to your rock bottom and where you may have contributed to where you are. You develop radical accountability and responsibility for yourself and take complete ownership of your role in what happened, and in your life moving forward.
6. How you respond to what is happening is so much more important than what is actually happening. There are so many things that happen outside of our control. What defines our character is how we deal with it and what we do with the hand we have been given.
7. You realize just how resourceful you are. When things become crazy and your life is in shambles, you literally dig deeper into your soul and are willing to give things everything you’ve got. You begin to think outside the box. And refuse to give up.
8. Sometimes we have to completely fall apart so that we can rebuild ourselves into something better. I sometimes think of a butterfly emerging from their little cocoon. Just when they thought their world as they knew it was ending, they became a butterfly. Everything that is happening right now is what needs to happen to catapult you into a better place.
From Pity to Praise 