1 Surprising Lesson I’ve Learned From My Ex Fiancé’s Decision To Leave Me

Feel Good Project day 74

My favorite refrigerator magnet reads: ‘All GLORY comes from DARING to begin’

That’s one powerful magnet if you ask me. (Statement-wise, that is. It barely holds anything up without sliding down! Complete magnet FAIL, but I keep it though because it speaks to me.)

What a daily reminder that if I never begin then I will never know where it all leads.

I am loving where it is leading so far.

I have not loved some of the experiences that have made up the often rocky path but I am choosing to let my pain be part of my story in a new way. Turning my pain into a plan to help others is what it’s all about or it’s wasted.

One of the moments that stands out in a moment of pain over a long ago broken engagement to another man, was when my friend Julie consoled me with a beautiful lunch full of encouraging words, support, and a shoulder to cry on. Being a few years older than I and also in a wonderful marriage at the time, told me that when she in one of her own lowest of low times her dad told her “Don’t waste the pain.”

I don’t know why that comment stuck with me for more than fourteen years now, but it obviously left a huge impact on me.

What I love about it is that it rings just as true today in January 2015 as it did in the spring of 2001.

A timeless piece of advice.

I have attempted to hold true to this throughout many different seasons of hardship in my life, and I have also passed it on as one of the most profound sentences that impacted my entire life.

I used to view it through the lens of letting the pain I experience transcend sympathy to empathy, so that I may fully know how others are experiencing and feeling as well.

That is still true, but I feel it has gone many steps deeper into the realm now of actually USING the painful experience to relay messages of hope and redemption.

I never thought I would really mean it when I say that my grief in that loss of that relationship was the very best ‘BAD’ thing that ever happened to me. What has transpired all these years since has been the most fruitful, real growth a gal could ask for.

I bring this whole thing up because I am reminding myself to view my digestive challenges through this same set of glasses. It’s as if a huge reminder flew in front of me today, waving a giant red banner telling me to not wasted THIS pain either. Turn it not only into your own story but to turn it into something MORE valuable to help others.

This looks like a jumbled mess on paper but it’s starting to take on a shape, texture, feel and life of it’s own. I am thrilled to watch it evolve.

Certainly it does not mean I have to LIKE my discomfort or pain. Rather, I like the fact that it has and continued to change me. Who ever grew from something easy? If someone out there has, I think that’s mighty rare. To me it’s becoming about rolling up the sleeves, putting on the big girl panties and digging deep till it hurts.

And it hurts good.

The Feel Good Project would have no meaning if there were no opposite to compare it to. Thankful that there is feeling bad so I know what it’s like to return to feeling good.

FEEL GOOD MOMENT OF THE DAY: Learning through a wonderful conversation in studio today with Dr. Marita about women’s health issues. Reminds me again and again that I am not alone-far from it in fact. Knowing many others journey alongside provides me with a sense of sisterhood, to whom I feel VERY loyal to and lead to to want to share my battle scars with any day of the week! Reminder: we are NOT alone.

Image: wisegeek.com