What is your Bottom Line?

“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”
~ Elif Shafak’s The Forty Rules of Love

Life can get a little wonky at times. Sometimes it feels like your live in one of those glass Christmas bubbles, you're the snow man and someone just came over and shook the shit out of it to make the snow fly everywhere. Sometimes it feels like you have no idea which way is "up," much less which way you should be moving. It can be highly challenging to live up to your own personal standards of a strong, capable person when you get sucker punched by Life. But the thing is, in times of intense change it is important to remember that being "strong and capable" boils down to holding onto your ideals and living gracefully. You don't always have to be doing something "grand" to be doing something grand. Sometimes, just getting through a tough time and surviving with grace is grander than any great feat you accomplish when life is good. 

Something I have found to be highly empowering, especially in tough times, is connecting regularly with my ideals. When you get into the river and suddenly start heading up shit's creek it's easy to panic, to grab at anything that you think might help you. The problem with acting out of fear is that you typically make a decision based upon survival, instead of upon what is best for your higher intentions. It's easy to sacrifice your higher intentions when you are just trying to survive, but when you remember that this too shall pass (it always does) then you need to realize the importance of getting out of your hole, as opposed to simply jumping into another. Are you willing to sacrifice your ideals? Or are you willing to be patient enough to align yourself to what is truly best.

Ideals are your personal bottom-line. Ideas are something that define the core of who you are. Goals can change or even be sacrificed based upon the changes that life throws at you, but ideals should not. They can be changed, but unfortunately when you get into the business of changing your ideals it becomes a slippery slope to losing touch with who you are entirely. Goals are something we seek you achieve, but ideals are the guiding force behind the decisions we make. According to Edgar Cayce, "the ideal motivates us to reach beyond our present grasp. With ideals, it's the trying, not the fulfillment, that is the purpose."* 

We all have ideals, we just don't always know them. They make it incredible easy to make decisions in your life that align to what is best for you. If you find yourself in a position where you are having a hard time making a decision, likely it is because you have lost track of your ideals. There is much less grey area in life than we tend to think, when it comes to what is best for you, at this present time, it is either "yes" or "no" and this answer is entirely dependent on your personal ideals. 

So what matters most to you? Is it making lots of money, or doing what you love? Is it knowing all the details, or living peacefully? Is it having justice, or compassion? Sometimes, when you are in a tough spot, it is best to take yourself out of the situation long enough to re-establish your ideal, then hop back into the situation the make the decision. After all, it is always easy to make a decision and stand by it when you know that it honors you.

*Borrowed from Contemporary Cayce by Kevin Tedeschi and Henry Reed