Hardships are a part of life. No matter how you try to escape them, they will find you and ambush you. While hard times do make life rally challenging for us and sometimes even trigger depression and make us lose all hope, they aren't all that bad.
Luckily, I was never a person who perceived hardships as something negative. I have gone through a lot of difficult times in life- my father went through a terrible financial crisis when I was about 11 and that affected our lives greatly too; then there came a time when we could not afford to eat properly; then my parents got separated and my mother along with me and my siblings shifted to my grandparent's house where we saw blood relationships change color and turn into vicious beings (not all of them, but a few.) Things then improved for a while and I got married and started living a happy life with my husband, but fate had something else store for us and my husband I went through a tough financial period that led to an emotional crisis as well. For about 3 years, we experienced a lot of turbulence in our relationship and lives, and it wasn't something easy to live with. One of my really close family members went through a lot of trouble too and since he was closely related to me, that affected me deeply too.
So you get the idea that life hasn't been a very soft bed of roses for me always. It has had ups and downs, highs and lows, good times and bad times, but despite all the rough patches and storms I had to endure, I never labelled them as bad episodes. Yes, I did feel pained and sometimes even hopeless for a while when the going did get tough, but I never saw my hardships as some sort of death sentence. Whenever a hardship came knocking my door, I always perceived it as a test from my Allah and had the firm belief that if I stay put throughout the hard time, adopt an optimistic outlook towards it and keep consistently finding my way out of it, I will bring good times my way; and honestly, this is exactly what happened every time I went through a bad phase. I am grateful for all the tough times I went through because they played a big role in shaping me who I am, and I encourage you to adopt the same attitude towards your hard times because your hardships do teach you a lot.
Why Be Thankful for Your Bad Times
As much as the hardships you face make life hard for you, they teach you a lot of things as mine did for me. My hardships taught me to be patient, to stay calm when the tough times strike you and to build the endurance we need to become stronger and more powerful in life. Patience is quite an important virtue because if we aren't patient, we won't be able to move past the bad times and if we aren't patient, we won't be able to wait for the fruit to ripen. We are likely to give up sooner than we should and when we do that, we often move away from something we have been pursuing for a long time right before it is going to yield the desired result. I remember reading a story wherein a man goes to South Africa to find a cave of diamonds, but after looking it for a long time, he gives in and sells off his land.
A farmer buys that land and starts cultivating crops on it and takes good care of the land. One day, he finds a beautiful crystal on his land, unaware of what it truly is and its real worth. Later, he finds out that it is diamond and that the entire land is full of diamonds underneath. Had that man who bought that land not given up on his dream and looked elsewhere for diamonds, and had enough patient, he would have achieved his goal. I don't remember the story clearly but it is the gist of it.
So you need to be patient to move forward and move past a tough times so you can welcome good times. I was quite patient before too, but after reading this story, I became more patient in life and stayed put whenever a hardship hit us and luckily, I have been able to move past it and welcome fantastic times in my life after that.
In addition to making you patient, your hardships also teach you how to fight your problems and emerge victorious in the end. They give you pain and when the pain becomes unbearable, you become compelled to fight the obstacle. Obviously, this does depend a lot on the kind of mindset your nurture. If you perceive a hardship as a death sentence, you may succumb to it the minute it strikes you or after bearing it for some time. However, if you don't want it to get the better of you, you do fight back and this teaches you how to face your fears and manage your own battles which is a really important lesson to build a meaningful life.
My hardships also taught me to be content because when you are stuck in a rut or going through a tough time, you become more aware of your blessings and reminisce your good times and that makes you thankful for the good times you have been through. I also learned to be thankful for my hardship because I found myself becoming stronger and more positive with each hardship. A few days back my husband told me that his trades weren't going too well and that he was feeling hopeless. My response was simply: 'Stay put hon, we have gone through much more difficult times in the past. Look at how much you have grown over these past few weeks, be thankful for that and just power through. These tough times are only to polish your skills.' He listened to that, paid heed to the advice and told me the other day that he had found a way out of his problems. I couldn't be happier at that moment.
All the tough times I have been through also reinforced my faith in Allah. I believe whatever force you believe in and the God you worship loves you dearly and He cannot see you in pain. Yes, he puts you through tough times but the tests are only to turn you into gold and if you keep believing in Him during those times, he will ease your pain and bring great times your way, and that's what happened with me every single time.
Also, my hardships also taught me whom to trust and rely on and whom to stay distant from. Some people show their true colors in difficult times and this is how you learn about their genuine sides. For instance, there were a few people who turned out to be mates only for the good times and disappeared during my tough times whereas there were some who stayed with me through every thick and thin and that showed me who loved me unconditionally.
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My hardships have always shaped me into a better person and they also taught me to be more accepting of difficult times and to stop labeling them as negative experiences. For all these reasons, I am and will forever be grateful for going through difficult times. How do you perceive your hardships and what lessons did you learn from them? Would love to hear your views on the topic. And thank you for being so kind to go through this post.
Love and light,
Sharoon.
If you liked this post, you may find the following interesting too:
Why is it Okay to Be a Little Selfish, Focus on Your Needs and Communicate them to Loved Ones
Why Do We Attach Unnecessary Meaning to Everything??
Batman & Jesus: Why do we fear debate?
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