Mistakes: A blessing or a curse?

I know that each of us at some point, probably at multiple times throughout our life, we are faced with a decision. We are pushed into making choices, because without choice we can’t progress and if we don’t progress, we don’t grow and if we don’t grow we aren’t really LIVING!

Usually when were faced with two different paths we begin to wage a war in our mind. We start listing the pros and cons and then we tend to dwell on it more than is healthy and that’s where the worry begins…

I know this feeling all to well and I constantly play the What if game! And it does drive me insane, leaves me depleted, drained and depressed. I’ve learned though along this path of worrying over my decisions that are decisions are based on two central principles: Fear or Love. We either make a choice based on fear or based on love, which in many ways can be seen as the choice between a mind and are heart. It can be an EXHAUSTING battle.

Recently, I had a big decision to make in my life and I was faced with this exact dilemma. I’ll be starting my next internship for school and I had only interviewed with one place, a facility that honestly left me feeling scared, uncomfortable and wanting to leave as soon as possible. While the place offered AWESOME experience for the field I”m going into and their staff was nice, the schedule fit and I’d be getting a lot of experience…it just didn’t feel right.

I found out that they had offered me the internship and needed to know within a few days. And here is where I got stuck. I knew I had a decision to make, do I go with my intuition (hold out for another internship) or go with my logic (take it and play it safe)?

Being someone who usually relies on logic, taking the internship seemed like the easy, most safe route. But ultimately I decided to follow my heart and my intuition and I declined it. I was scared for taking a chance but something inside said “Don’t take it, it’s not the right move”. It wasn’t until today that I was talking with my school adviser about what my other options were and things were not looking up. No one was returning phone calls and I still had not completed an internship with another place and I”m supposed to be starting this internship in 2 weeks.

I panicked!!!! Had I made a mistake? Should I have gone with the safe path and swallowed my fear and taken the internship at this place that screamed run in the other direction? Am I now going to be cursed because I made this massive mistake?

This then go me thinking, well I”m human…which means I make mistakes. But are mistakes really a curse? Are we really “punished” and “suffering” when we believe we made a mistake?

I think this really depends on how you look at it. We all make choices but are there really right and wrong choices? Yes, if you decided to do drugs or shoot another person or steal…those are probably not the best decisions for one to make. But maybe that pushes you to hit bottom, you change your life and begin helping other going through the same problems. In that sense are our mistakes a curse or are they really a blessing in disguise?

As I look back at all the things I “thought” I had done wrong, I realized I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this had I made different choices in my life. Had I not learned and grown and experienced I wouldn’t be alive…so maybe mistakes aren’t real and maybe what happens to us is not in our control? But what we do have control over 100% is how we react.

Even in the moment of making a choice when we perceive that we have made the wrong one, that thought is what causes our destruction, not the actual choice. Instead if we make a choice and say to ourselves I made the right choice at the time with what I knew and felt, whatever happens will happen and things always work out the way there meant to. Maybe then we are more open to taking whatever consequences are with that decision with a grain of positivity and willingness to learn and better ourselves. Our thoughts become our reality…if you believe it was right then it was.

As I sit here tonight thinking about what my future holds, I’m reminding myself that no matter happens, I know that things will all happen and fall into place they way they are meant to. There is no contract with god that says “If you pick wrong be prepared to suffer”… that’s just our belief that mistakes suck and hurt and we punish ourselves for being foolish. But we aren’t the fools for the choice we made, but for the thoughts that we have about it. My thought now is that every choice I have made and am going to make is a BLESSING because I am one step closer to my purpose and I get to grow, learn and be of service to others. And that brings me one step closer to the divine and that my friends is no mistake at all!

Challenge the choices that you’ve made and instead of saying how could I be so stupid, I made such a big mistake! Say Thank you for where you have lead me and for blessing me with the wisdom to learn from every experience I’m present with 🙂

Happy Choosing!

With light and love,

Ashley
xo