I recently found a journal of experiences I had written about 14 years ago and my journal this year was word for word a repetition of this experience. The only difference really was the way in which I dealt with it. Mentally, physically and emotionally, my responses were different and when I compare this to previously I’m able to see the growth. I now am no longer just reminded of the bad but the good as well. I no longer try to hide away or shy away from all the negative because I can see how it goes hand in hand with the positive. And maybe that’s the lesson. The learning – hopefully it won’t need to be repeated. And maybe that’s the point; that life is a mixture of good and bad. And without the good times, we’d have nothing to look forward to and without the bad times, we couldn’t be grateful for the good.

How many times have you tried to forget about something bad that’s happened to you? Have you noticed how you even start avoiding any good memories associated with this “bad” experience because it just seems to remind you of painful, hurting times? And when we do this, we miss out on the learning and guess what? If you don’t get the lesson the first time, it will just keep appearing in different shapes and forms until you get it.

And maybe that becomes the problem. We either try push away all the bad things that have happened to us or that we have done; and then we do not learn from them and so it happens over and over again. We then believe that we are only this negative side or we start to believe that life is only made up of bad moments. With this blocked view, we do not even notice when good things happen and we may even stop believing the good within us.
When you reject the bad, you reject the good as well. So when you try forget bad memories you forget anything good that came from it as well.

The opposite can happen as well. We could only see the good of everything that we stay naive about life and learn no lessons. We avoid the bad moments and memories so much that we try fool ourselves into something that we do not truly believe. And if we avoid it, it just eats away at us. We become consciously blind to our own destruction; sitting with false positivity not accepting that it’s just that – false.

So what’s the answer? Accept it all. Things are only as good or bad as you decide they are. And everything, good or bad, can teach us lessons that we can use later on in life. Moderation, balance with grace and gratitude. There’s always two sides to everything and everyone; it’s up to you to decide what you want to believe and see. Is it all truly negative or positive or can it actually be both at the same time for you?