The beginning of this year has come with challenging energy of the kind that, in its full blast, it is so helpful to have people, touchstones, and practices that help us, me, remember that, even though I may want to resist it, that energy always holds precious gifts that I must choose to find and unpack. What a difference that reframe can make!
Did you watch the movie The 33? It’s based on actual, relatively recent, events, so I hope I am not spoiling it for you (you can skip this paragraph and the next, if you prefer not to risk the spoiler). When the 33 Chilean miners become trapped underground, there’s a critical moment when Mario (Antonio Banderas), one of the main characters, tells the others that he believes they will get out of there because he chooses to believe it (this scene is in the trailer). There is no evidence that he is right, and the likelihood that he is, or that rescue is even feasible, is very low.
What I love about the scene is that the belief he chose to adopt (and enrolled the others in) was central to the possibility of surviving, because it led the men to ration the meager food they had. But when they made the choice, they didn’t know how important that would be.
If you have read or heard any of my work, then you know how passionately I espouse choosing beliefs that serve us. There is so much we can’t know, so much uncertainty in the world, and our lives. But we can gauge whether our beliefs serve us or not.
For example, there is proof, either way, that the Universe leans towards goodness and light, as towards evil and shadows. Which I choose to invest my energy in, which I choose to adopt as my belief, will define whether I use a hopeful or a fearful lens to read my experiences of the world through. Me? I feel better served with hope.
Looping back to where we started, a belief that I can find gifts and 
lessons from everything that happens to me, even if it feels challenging to me, serves me better than believing I am powerless to make meaning of my different experiences.
Believing I have some responsibility in how I respond to circumstances and, therefore, some agency in my own circumstances, serves me better than feeling victimized and impotent.
Perhaps none of these beliefs is real or true, I don’t think there is a real way of knowing. But I do know what happens for me when I choose them.
What belief do you have that really serves you?
Which one really does not? Comment below, and next time, I’ll share a process to shift that!
Fruitage of Orange 2 photo by patkisha
