If You’re Going Through Hard Times, Read This

If you’re going through a hard time right now, I have a message for you. I'm not a guru nor a psychotherapist, but I've been there. Perhaps not in the same way you are now, but I've been to dark places, I've lost people I've loved, I've had heartbreak, I've self-harmed, battled an OCD, I've gone to therapy to undo the damage of a tumultuous childhood, I've clawed some sanity back from the jaws of defeat.

And to one degree or another I'll have to do it again, and so will you.

We're all just people feeling our way through life, taking best guesses based on the limited information and experience we have at hand.

What I will say is all things will pass. The pain, the darkness, the hardship. It's about holding on, riding the wave until it settles back down. It's about believing —knowing —it will settle back down.

Life is amazing but sometimes it can kick you to the curb and keep on kicking you for a while. I know.

But right now, those pains you feel are growing pains. That struggle is growth. It might not feel like it, but all this is making you stronger.

Keep going so you can keep growing.

Breakdown/breakthrough. There is no difference.

If you’re walking through hell, don’t stop, else that’s where you’ll be stuck.

We all have to face an end-of-level-boss to level up.

What hurts right now will be breaking you down and putting you back together with expanded consciousness and resolve.

Only the drowning man sees Jesus. This is a time of deliverance. Have faith. It is a process and it has to be played out.

Put in the work of pushing back against the darkness and creating your own light. Be your own saviour. It's the only way. You’ll be surprised how strong you really are.

An end-of-level-boss can’t be defeated through passive hope, be active in your fight back.

Albert Camus put it best when he wrote:

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger — something better, pushing right back.”

It’s tempting to seek a cheat mode to escape the end-of-level-boss — drink, drugs, blame, excuses, these are life’s cheat modes — but it will only delay your confrontation. You can’t level up on cheat mode. You can’t grow on cheat mode. You can't respect yourself on cheat mode.

Getting through this hard time is how you gain certainty and strength. Falling is how you earn your wings. Being in the furnace is how you forge yourself anew.

On the other side of this pain is a level of clarity and wisdom you can’t see right now, but they’re there, waiting to be claimed.

The only way out is through.

As Rumi said:

“The pain itself will crack the rock and let the soul emerge.”

Those dark thoughts aren’t you. Don’t identify with them. Observe them. See how they tempt you onto the rocks and how they lose their resolve when you don’t indulge them.

You are stronger than you think and life is giving you the opportunity to show that. You are being reborn, but birth is painful… and magical.

Physical strength has a limit. Mental strength does not.

You are capable of all things, but it is also OK to ask for help because you are also capable of humility.

Seek help. Dante needed Virgil to lead him out of hell.

Don’t stop now else you’ll miss out on your glory and purpose. Great times await you, they’re coming, just a bit further down the road. Get there. Get them. You're in the process of earning them now.

How do you know who you are if you don’t have to deal with hard times? Right now, you’re defining and creating a greater version of you.

These hard times will be the making of you who are. Deep inside is a force pushing you on. You're not alone, you can do this. You’ve got this. You've got it.