Martha Beck: How to Survive Life's Roughest Patches
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STEP 2: Put your mind in reverse.
From a place of minimal functioning, you can back off the rumble strip—by reversing the assumptions that steered you onto it in the first place. These key assumptions are clearly marked with intense negative emotions: fear, anger, sadness. Such feelings are big red WRONG WAY signs. Back away from them.
To help Dorothy do this, I asked her which, of all her tribulations, was causing her the most pain. Topping her very long list was the thought "My marriage has failed." So that's where we began shifting Dorothy's mind into reverse.
"Give me three reasons your marriage actually didn't fail," I said.
"But it did!" Dorothy muffled a sob.
"Well, was any part of it good?"
"Yes. Of course."
"Did you learn from it?"
"I learned so much," said Dorothy.
"And is every learning experience that comes to an end a failure?" I asked. "Like school, or childhood, or life?"
"Well, no."
Dorothy paused, thinking. Then her shoulders relaxed just a little. Ta-da! She'd begun reversing a painful assumption.
To be clear, I wasn't trying to minimize Dorothy's pain or plaster a creepy happy face over her legitimate sorrow. I only wanted her to alter her beliefs enough to catch a glimpse of a different road, where a marriage could succeed as a soul adventure even if it didn't last forever.
Try throwing your mind into reverse right now. Think of the worst, most hurtful thing that's happening in your life. Now think of a way this horrible thing might be good. The more rigidly you hold on to your assumptions, the harder this process will be. But with practice you'll improve—and trust me, it's so worth the effort. When life gets rumbly, being able to reverse an assumption turns out to be the handiest skill imaginable.
STEP 3: Find and follow smooth terrain.
Because rumble strips are one of the few experiences that will make sensible people hire a life coach, I've been privy to hundreds of them. And I've noticed a very consistent pattern: At the point when someone sees through a false assumption, the road of life suddenly turns smooth. Instead of crazy bad luck, bits of strangely good luck start showing up. They're small at first, inconspicuous. Never mind—slather them with attention. Your attention is what steers your life, and it's much more pleasant to steer by focusing on the good stuff.
In Dorothy's case, the moment she reversed her assumption that divorce always means failure, the waitress brought her a cupcake, said, "On the house," and walked away. Later that afternoon, Dorothy found an abandoned New York Times unfolded to an article titled "The Good Divorce," which helped and encouraged her. Then she ran into a former boyfriend she hadn't seen in years. During their brief interaction, he told her how much he still respected her, and how valuable their "failed" relationship still was to him.
Little miracles like this will begin happening to you whenever you turn toward your right life, even if you're in the middle of a rumble strip. If you stop everything you think you should be doing, surrender to what's actually happening, reverse your assumptions, and steer toward the glimmers of light that appear as your old beliefs shatter, the small miracles will turn into big ones. Eventually, your good luck will seem as incredible and mysterious as your bad. Once more you'll be asking, "Did I do something to deserve this?" Only this time, the question will arise from a sense of overwhelming gratitude, not overwhelming pain.
By the way, the answer to that question is yes. You did do something to deserve this. You had the courage to keep traveling the precarious road of life. You deserve to be guided. And rewarded. And, when all else fails, rumbled.
Martha Beck's latest book is Finding Your Way in a Wild New World (Free Press).
More from Martha Beck
From a place of minimal functioning, you can back off the rumble strip—by reversing the assumptions that steered you onto it in the first place. These key assumptions are clearly marked with intense negative emotions: fear, anger, sadness. Such feelings are big red WRONG WAY signs. Back away from them.
To help Dorothy do this, I asked her which, of all her tribulations, was causing her the most pain. Topping her very long list was the thought "My marriage has failed." So that's where we began shifting Dorothy's mind into reverse.
"Give me three reasons your marriage actually didn't fail," I said.
"But it did!" Dorothy muffled a sob.
"Well, was any part of it good?"
"Yes. Of course."
"Did you learn from it?"
"I learned so much," said Dorothy.
"And is every learning experience that comes to an end a failure?" I asked. "Like school, or childhood, or life?"
"Well, no."
Dorothy paused, thinking. Then her shoulders relaxed just a little. Ta-da! She'd begun reversing a painful assumption.
To be clear, I wasn't trying to minimize Dorothy's pain or plaster a creepy happy face over her legitimate sorrow. I only wanted her to alter her beliefs enough to catch a glimpse of a different road, where a marriage could succeed as a soul adventure even if it didn't last forever.
Try throwing your mind into reverse right now. Think of the worst, most hurtful thing that's happening in your life. Now think of a way this horrible thing might be good. The more rigidly you hold on to your assumptions, the harder this process will be. But with practice you'll improve—and trust me, it's so worth the effort. When life gets rumbly, being able to reverse an assumption turns out to be the handiest skill imaginable.
STEP 3: Find and follow smooth terrain.
Because rumble strips are one of the few experiences that will make sensible people hire a life coach, I've been privy to hundreds of them. And I've noticed a very consistent pattern: At the point when someone sees through a false assumption, the road of life suddenly turns smooth. Instead of crazy bad luck, bits of strangely good luck start showing up. They're small at first, inconspicuous. Never mind—slather them with attention. Your attention is what steers your life, and it's much more pleasant to steer by focusing on the good stuff.
In Dorothy's case, the moment she reversed her assumption that divorce always means failure, the waitress brought her a cupcake, said, "On the house," and walked away. Later that afternoon, Dorothy found an abandoned New York Times unfolded to an article titled "The Good Divorce," which helped and encouraged her. Then she ran into a former boyfriend she hadn't seen in years. During their brief interaction, he told her how much he still respected her, and how valuable their "failed" relationship still was to him.
Little miracles like this will begin happening to you whenever you turn toward your right life, even if you're in the middle of a rumble strip. If you stop everything you think you should be doing, surrender to what's actually happening, reverse your assumptions, and steer toward the glimmers of light that appear as your old beliefs shatter, the small miracles will turn into big ones. Eventually, your good luck will seem as incredible and mysterious as your bad. Once more you'll be asking, "Did I do something to deserve this?" Only this time, the question will arise from a sense of overwhelming gratitude, not overwhelming pain.
By the way, the answer to that question is yes. You did do something to deserve this. You had the courage to keep traveling the precarious road of life. You deserve to be guided. And rewarded. And, when all else fails, rumbled.
Martha Beck's latest book is Finding Your Way in a Wild New World (Free Press).
More from Martha Beck
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