How to Find Inner Peace when Life Changes Your "Perfect Pictures"
"The soul never thinks without a picture."
Aristotle
Dear Friend,
- … Do you find yourself suddenly stressed when something doesn’t go the way you imagined?
- … Do you show your frustration when someone cancels a meeting at the last minute you were looking forward to?
- … Do you lose your inner peace and joy, when life presents you with unexpected events?
Well I could have answered yes to all of those questions…and more. Not only I could lose my happiness, I felt anger, frustration, resentment and many other toxic feelings if life didn’t deliver the perfect pictures I had imagined for myself… However all this changed once I let life be. So how can we let life be and why should we?
…We are so great at building perfect pictures in our minds my friend. The question is: "What happens to us, when in real life the perfect picture goes ‘wrong’?"…
One of my perfect pictures was to give my son the best education possible. Then I found my son was dyslexic and did not fit my perfect picture I built in my mind… I suddenly became so obsessed with caring about his future, that I stopped enjoying his presence. I was devastated about the news and started to care and worry about his future to the extent that I actually lost my joy! Once I stopped caring and just started to love him as he is, accept him as perfect, be OK with it, my joy returned. Now I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be his mum. He changed my views about many aspects of life and there is no substitute to that, he is the best teacher about life lessons I could ever have had.
…We all build these perfect pictures in our minds. We have perfect pictures about health, children, wedding days, social events … It is wonderful and great to have them and we are supposed to have them. However we also individually belong to a bigger picture of God, Universe or Source. How our small perfect picture fits with the bigger picture is a question which we can't answer. We can however understand that there is a greater purpose for each of us. Equipped with faith and trust we can allow ourselves to join the flow of the Big River of Life my friend.
Trust and Faith is so important…as it is not possible to know what the best answer is because our knowledge is limited. However Divine Intelligence is much more powerful and we are all part of it, the way to approach life's paradox is to agree, accept, be OK with, appreciate for all life gives us. Nothing happens by accident. When we let ourselves be part of the big perfect picture – life becomes perfect. We can make plans, set goals, we can create vision boards, we can visualize and imagine, but once we've done that part we have to let go, have faith and trust the higher force to deliver to us in the best and most perfect way possible …
There is an old story about a farmer, who lived in a small village in China:
This farmer was considered wealthy by the other villagers because he owned a horse. Then one night thieves broke into his stable and stole the horse. The next day all the neighbors came to comfort him over his terrible loss. They said how unlucky it was. The farmer simply said: "Hmmm…Maybe…"
View days later his son was out and caught two new beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. They said how lucky he was having such lovely strong horses! The farmer simply said: "Hmmm…Maybe…"
The next day the farmer's son was trying to ride one of the new horses, fell and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. They said: "Such bad luck!" But all the farmer had to say was: "Hmmm…Maybe…"
The next day solders came to the village to press gang all the men into the army. They didn't take the farmer's son, because of his broken leg. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. "Hmmm…Maybe…" – simply said the farmer.
We can see how the old wise farmer had faith and lived in the flow of life…
…Universe orchestrates events in a perfect sequence, and we are not able to predict what event will lead us to the next in the best way… We can only suffer and block the unfolding when we become discouraged or negative. When we resist and resent we attract the events which are not going to serve us. When we have faith, trust and look towards our future with positive expectation that all will work out well at the end, we also become cooperative components of God's bigger picture. When we tap into the flow of our perfect life, there is nothing to stop us feeling happy, joyful, peaceful, full of life, confident, powerful, successful, healthy, wealthy…
So many times life will deliver events we are going to be surprised about. Many of these are events we can’t control my friend, but we can always control our attitude towards them…
Today I’m so much more relaxed and open towards life's surprises and welcome them. I remember even such a small thing as a friend cancelling our meeting at the last minute could drive me crazy, today I feel enlightened and think about opportunity to use this time to do something even more exciting… 😉
We can do a lot with our imagination and perfect pictures must be part of it. What stops us to manifest is that we want the pictures to be exactly the way we imagined and when we see something different we resist and suffer. Everything changes once we let go of details. God is keener than you to deliver to you the best, but when you start worrying about perfection you stop receiving the best and join the negative thoughts. These will manifest events which will create even more pain and suffering…
Divine intelligence is so much smarter and knows better, when we trust the flow of life and let it be, we stop limitation to what life has to offer. We can learn to trust life to deliver something even better than we imagined. Often something we thought as bad and as failure turns out as a stepping stone to something great we never could’ve imagined…
Do your job my friend, use imagination, create the perfect pictures but then relax and let Universe do its work.
Here are some affirmations you could use when life changes your "Perfect Pictures":
"Everything happens for a reason and in the best way for all."
"I am part of the Universe and I trust all is well."
"There are different ways things can manifest and I know all is perfect as it is."
"I don't have to know all the answers right now – time will tell."
"I live in a friendly Universe and everything what happens is for my highest good."
"All is well and all is perfect."
You can pick and chose an affirmation, or find something that really resonates with you.
…I personally remember the story about the farmer which allows me to look at events in a context of my whole life, giving me positive perspective. You know you are unlimited and eternal being, life is a game and gives you different lessons to learn. You can only build your character by having versatile experiences. How you respond to these lessons is what really matters…
Once you let the "Perfect Pictures" go – life becomes perfect.
Let’s do this together.
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. I'd love to hear from you!
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Solvita Bennett is sharing her wisdom with people from different backgrounds to find their Inner Peace and Happiness. With more than 20 years of study and practice of Personal Growth coupled with more than 10 years experience in professional teaching gives her the ability to share her ‘Secrets to Inner Peace’ in a Simple, Easy and Practical way.
Research shows that more than 95% of people lead their lives with worry. Don’t let this happen to you! Get your FREE copy of her Special Report “7 MASTER KEYS TO SOLVE THE WORRY" now.
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{ 67 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent article Solvita! Great affirmations…Thanks, Hughie
Thanks Hughie! It is great to see you here!
Great story of the farmer Solvita; lots of wisdom! The flow of life is very important indeed!
Thank you Olga! Yes life becomes joy when we are in the flow ~ its rather like magic ~ amazing experience…
What a wonderful article and positive outlook to have. Thank you for sharing, and I will try to be less stressed too when my life does not turn out picture-perfect.
Thank you Elvie!
What a great reminder, Solvita! The more we multi-task, the more we try to micro-manage. And, in the end, the more we get in our own way …
It is great to see you here Sharon! That is what we do so often ~ we want to manage something that is not supposed to be managed and so we end up in struggle and are out of the flow…
Great stuff Solvita. Love the affirmations and the farmer’s story. Thank you for sharing this today
I love the farmer’s story…it puts everything in perspective again… Thanks for stopping by James!
Great affirmations to help us through…thanks Solvita!
Thank you Denny! Affirmations are what can easily calm our minds in times of discouragement…
Thanks for sharing Solvita! I love how you make mention of becoming obsessed while also missing out on the present. What a great reminder to trust that things will work out for the best and that obsessing will only bring us more discouragement. Thanks for the reminder!
Thank you so much Jennifer!
Brilliant post Solvita! Thank you so much for sharing.
My pleasure ~ glad You loved it Anastasiya!
Love the farmer story, and the affirmations.
Depending on my mood, my first reaction can be anger.
But, if I relax and let things happen, it always works out perfect for me.
I’m always working on controlling my emotions.
It can be a blessing and a curse being “Driven.”
Thanks for the great stuff,
AJ
Thanks AJ!
This is absolutely so true. And how hard is it for people to do this? SO hard. I find myself having to tell myself all the time “I know there’s something better in store for me” if I’m going thru a hard time. And always always tell people that too. Then I take it a step further…and when something great happens…I recall the turmoil I had to go thru to get there and it helps me to grasp this concept even more. Thx 4 sharing!
You are welcome Saarah ~ thank you so much for stopping by!
Great article, Solvita! I have lived my life by one of your statements “everything happens for a reason”. I totally believe this to be true. Sometimes the best answers to prayers are the unanswered ones
God always knows where our path should be.
Great to see you here Kim! Yes~ God knows better!
Thank you Solvita for the lovely reminder to stay focused on where I am and trust that I am supposed to be here
You are supposed to be here or you wouldn’t be here! Thank you Peggy
I do believe everything happens for a reason. My belief in God gives me the strength and faith to make it through those times. Some days it is VERY hard, though!
Great approach Janis! Life is not meant to be easy, however with our experiences and positive attitude we can make it as easy as we want it to be…
Great perspective! Love how you say this ‘God is keener than you to deliver to you the best, but when you start worrying about perfection you stop receiving the best and join the negative thoughts’. How quickly we panic, right? We’re so focused on our picture of things that often we’re slow to ‘let go’ and let God bring us something even better.
This is so true Elise and you’ve got my message so perfectly well, we have to let God bring us something even better! Thank you!
Thank you for the inspiration today. I can answer yes to each of those also. Living in appreciation of the present and those around me helps me to grow in my faith when my “perfect picture” does not jell with reality. Beautiful reminder!
We all need some reminders as we go along in life and this website is full of them ;)… Lovely to see you here Edwina and thanks a lot for stopping by!
Lovely reminder of the phrase, ‘As within, so without…As above, so below”. Thanks!
Thanks Lorrie for stopping by and appreciate your comment!
I love the farmer story….such a great illustration of faith and living in flow. The Aristotle quote “The soul never thinks without a picture.” is so appropriate…..
Thank you so much, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it Sherie!
This is a great remedy for stress. Honestly, for the things we have no control over, if our attitudes are positive we can turn it around in our favor. An attitude like that only makes life richer.
Yes Beau, if everyone could practise the approach of the wise farmer, there wouldn’t be stress 😉 Thank you!
Great article Solvita! You are so right that we can’t control what life puts in our paths nor can we control what others do, say, don’t do, don’t say, etc. BUT we can control how we react/feel about what happens in our lives. That is something I have taught my children from day one.
Hi Julie, great wisdom you are sharing with your children…Thanks for your comment!
Thank you for such a beautiful as well as inspirational article, Solvita! This really resonated with me. I often remind myself that my greatest good as well as anybody else involved will come from whatever the situation is. When we trust in God, Amazing things happen 😉
Great approach Susan! Amazing things happen ~ this is so true!
Love the post, very inspiring and love the farmer story.
Thanks a lot Sibyl! It’s good to know!
Loved the story about the farmer… great illustration of faith – everything happens for a reason. Thank YOU for sharing with us. x0x
Norma Doiron @ The LEARNED Preneur ╰☆╮
Love your website. Great job!
Hi Lorii! It is great to see you here! Thank you!
Beautiful! or, “Hmmmm, maybe!” This is why I always help couples create inner peace and greater passion.
Solvita Dear, Your posts just get better and better. Thank you for this lovely post. I am going to print it and give it to my husband to keep and refer to as his job often leaves him feeling frustrated. I think your insight will help!
Thank you Michele! Yes – I’m sure it will… it helps to just step back and read something which makes as think a bit lighter to get the energy and shift our daily thoughts. When we switch the thinking and beliefs it also changes our outside to benefit us greatly…
My mother-in-law continually says, “everything happens for a reason.” Sometimes I want to scream…lol. I have this picture in my head of what a certain event, activity experience or schedule should be and I WANT it to be that way..period. But, yes, the truth remains, that everything does happen for a reason and I have slowly realized through the years that the goal, dream, vision, whatever is still accomplished though in a different manner and generally in a far better way than I could have imagined with this creative brain of mine.
Hi Carl! I know the feeling, the more driven we are the more we like to be in control of our “Perfect Pictures”, and as you say in the end all turns out better than we can imagine when we just let life be
“Once you let the “Perfect Pictures” go – life becomes perfect.” I have to remind myself about “unforeseen occurrences befall us all”.
The story of the Chinese farmer is excellent. I adopt a wait-and-see attitude myself when others around me get riled up (either happily or angrily) because a cool head sees what is coming next. 😉
Excellent post, Solvita! I learned late in life that I can choose how I respond to different events. I’m much better now about taking things in stride, all by controlling my thoughts about the world and events as they occur. Someone once said that we are either the captains or the captives of our thoughts. We can choose to be captains.
This is so true ~ we always can choose to be captains 😉 thanks for stopping by John!
Solvita, thank you for this excellent article. It reminds me of my daughter. When she found that her 6 year old daughter was very, very near-sighted and again when her 2 year old son was found to have a birth-defect called spascity that he still has to deal with at age 16. My daughter confessed to me that she was so disappointed that her 2 children were not perfect. She has dealt with it wisely and with love but that perfect picture was shattered. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing your story Pat! We are so much greater than any picture, when we learn to enjoy life no matter what our life becomes a joy to live.
Thanks for the great reminders and affirmations! Blessings to you and yours!
Thank you Mary!… Blessing to you and yours!
Solvita,
Love the post.
So easy to be focused on the wrong picture.
I’ll add some new pics into my mental house:-)
-AJ
Thank you AJ!
Wow Solvita…want to share something – i had recd a forwarded mail regarding this farmer’s story a couple of years back. had read it and didnt bother about it. Last year i lost a precious thing just when it was so newly gifted.. the pain of losing it was so unbearable that i frantically searched for the mail containing farmers story which concluded “God alone knows what is good or bad for us, have trust in God in all situations of life, and believe that what God does, is best for us”…the pain started subsiding and I completely stopped thinking of the loss…….recently, went through tough phase and happened to visit ur website and ur posts helped me TREMENDOUSLY – also again remembered that mail of farmer’s story and again frantically searched for that mail….but this time wisdom prevailed and i pasted these words at a place for viewing it throughout the day to remember the FARMER’s STORY…..today i happened to read this post of yours and the farmer’s story in it – just couldnt stop smiling merrily…
Apart from the farmer, yes i have too, like each of us, experienced that our pictures and the ultimate pictures at times do not match……because sometimes the real pictures are far too better than the one we had painted (imagined) in our mind and then we are pleasantly surprised and overjoyed at the happenings ……and other times when they are contrast – we feel discouraged or disappointed but then learn a lesson from it…….a valuable lesson !!!
Oops forgot to mention – after losing that newly gift, just within less than a month received a wonderful thing even much better than the earlier thing (lost one) – it was then i realised the importance of those words “God alone knows………what God does is best for us”. Hence i will never forget that FARMER.
Absolutely ~ Jasmine, love it!
Thank you so much for sharing your story… It is so amazing to hear from you, my friend!
Dear All Women, Wish you all a very happy women’s day….its a celebration of our womanhood for we are born to show love, compassion, strength etc etc…our power lies in our positivity..no wonder God has chosen a woman as wonderful as Solvita to show us a right path..no matter what part of the world we all live in but yet connect here in this website through our womanhood. Cheers!!!
Dear Jasmine, this is such a wonderful message to all women! Thank you so much for being such a great fan and also for sharing so much enthusiasm and warmth. It is contagious and uplifting, my friend! Sending a lot of appreciation your way. See you back soon again.
I enjoyed your article Solvita. I have always looked for ways to simplify and find peace and beauty in the world. When I seperate myself from modern societies standards and focus on the things I really enjoy like Art, Nature and frienship all my fears and worries fade away. We are only here for a short time and have the ability to experience moments of perfection that last forever. When I let myself experience the true eternal beauty in certain art or music I realize that life is perfect. It’s like seeing God.