“The truth is this: by learning from your mistakes and experiences and by evolving through them, you practice the greatest form of self-love which is to grow,” unknown.  “Mistakes” is a broad term and a matter of interpretation—we can choose how we define it.  Some people are gifted with the ability to look at any situation in life as an opportunity.  We aren’t all going for the same goals so things that might appear to impede some won’t impede others—not everything matters in the same way to everyone.  If we’re not planning on being a professional athlete, then it doesn’t matter if we don’t try out for any sports, you know?  What is true, regardless of defining a situation as a mistake or not, is what we allow ourselves to experience and how we interpret that experience determines what we get from it.  I struggled with letting go of my ego and expectations and the thought patterns those habits created.  I firmly believed I knew what was “right.”  I didn’t ever want to veer from that course because it was known and safe.  But it still felt wrong. 

By repeating patterns that I’d learned from my family and developed through my experiences, I was inhibiting my own growth.  I wasn’t getting anything new—I wasn’t even able to replicate what those around me had.  So I was quite literally getting no where—not on their track or my own.  I had misinterpreted the point of life as repeating what I knew to perfection.  It wasn’t until many years later that I understood there might be a different purpose: learning and alchemizing this information into a broader, more universal lesson—and in some instances, a more personal lesson.  Perhaps a more precise lesson on letting go of what we know and integrating it to learn something new.  To become something new.  Habits and thought patterns like we’ve been talking about this week are beneficial when it comes to survival because the brain thrives in the known—it’s easier to recognize when something is different/a threat when it doesn’t match the patterns we know.  But it inhibits us from spreading our wings—and we have spent millennia learning to fly. 

As we learn to adapt and create new experiences, we create new thought patterns.  We can redefine how we look at mistakes, and we can redefine what a mistake is.  Humans are indeed meant to grow and evolve.  When we allow ourselves to be our most authentic self, we are evolving not only ourselves, but the world.  We are bringing new ideas and perspectives to the world.  This isn’t a punitive thing.  This is a spiritual thing.  This is a learning curve and no one knows how high the bell is set.  We simply need to live our lives and share what we know.  A mistake isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes things have to go wrong so we know which way to pivot so they can go right.  Growth isn’t always easy and it certainly isn’t pain-free.  Change is hard and requires a lot of dirty work.  But it is all worth it.  Rising from the darkness requires a lot of pushing through the dirt and ash.  But once we reach the top, we feel the light and we bloom.  Don’t inhibit ourselves because we think we veered in the wrong direction.  Simply keep pushing forward and allow the course to correct.  As we allow ourselves to be who we are and to fulfill our highest purpose, we learn what love is: the unconditional welcoming and acceptance of who we are.  How evolutionary/revolutionary of us.