Finding the Silver Lining

If you’re in my Radical Transformation Facebook group or if you follow my Instagram you know that I have been walking through a really tough time lately.

Not to be dramatic but it has completely sucked.

I’ve really been using this time to challenge myself to find the silver lining in these difficult situations.

I believe that while we don’t get to choose what happens to us in life we do get to choose what it means to us and how we see it.

I know it can be really difficult to find the bright side of a sucky situation but being able to find even a small silver lining has really helped me get through the very tough season of life that I’m in right now.

I have a whole video I made talking about living through a tough season of life. I will leave it below in case it helps someone else that is struggling.

Here are some things I’ve done to find the silver lining. I hope these tips help you too.

How Is This Serving Me?

This can feel like a really annoying question to ask yourself when you’re living through a crappy situation.

However, the truth is that tough situations humble us and help us grow into more compassionate and wise human beings.

I think it’s important to take time to give yourself credit for all of the lessons you’re learning during this situation.

For example, my current situation has brought a lot of my old friends together to support each other.

While the situation is terrible it has served me in helping me reconnect with old friends and that experience has been really beautiful.

It might be challenging to figure out how this situation has served you but even in horrible situations there is always something positive even if it’s something small.

silver lining

What Else Is Going Good?

Sometimes it helps to just focus on the area of your life that is going good.

If you get fired from your job take a break from focusing on that and think about your supportive partner or how much you love your family.

When you’re constantly focusing on the thing in your life that isn’t going good it’s easy to get stuck in a negative thought pattern.

Take a break from thinking about the bad situation and purposefully think about what is going good in your life.

I like to write gratitude lists in my journal to help me bring attention to the blessings I have.

There is always something to be thankful for even if you’re struggling or living through something tragic.

It’s important to keep a clear perspective by taking the time to recognize that there is still good things in your life.

How Can I Choose To See This Situation Differently?

I talk a lot about this in one of my podcast episodes (I’ll put it below if you want to listen).

When I’m really struggling I’ll tell my higher self “I am willing to see this situation differently”.

Shifting your perspective often takes a lot of intentional thought and effort but it has really helped me heal from some painful experiences.

I don’t believe there is very much absolute TRUTH in our lives. Often the things we think are facts are actually just stories and narratives we’re telling ourselves.

Start challenging your thoughts and pay attention to the stories you’re telling about the situation.

Ask yourself how you can see this situation differently and challenge yourself to come up with an empowering narrative about what is happening.

Learn The Lesson

When I look back the difficult times in my life really helped me evolve and become the person I am today.

Difficult situations can teach you some of the most valuable lessons in your entire life.

I certainly learned a lot of valuable but tough lessons from living through crappy situations.

I really doubt that I could have learned those lessons any other way.

Surviving those experiences made me more thoughtful about life and thankful for the people in it.

Now when I go through situations I try to find the lessons that I can learn from it.

This gives my struggle and pain a purpose and it helps me feel like it was all for some kind of reason.

Create Change

I believe sometimes live throws you a curveball to force you to take action.

Some of the biggest and scariest changes I made in my life were a result of living through a hard time.

I’ve moved to new cities, changed careers and cut friends from my life because of hard situations.

These things sucked to live through at the time but looking back they forced me to take action and change my life.

If you’re struggling it might really be worth looking at your life and see if you should start making changes.

It doesn’t always have to be massive radical action but you can start small.

I like to use hard situations to help me reevaluate my life and set new goals for the future.

A lot of my rock bottom moments were big reality checks that I was on the wrong path and I needed to make some changes.

Journal

Here are some of the journal prompts I’ve been using to find the silver lining as I walk through this difficult time.

I am thankful for:
Even though this situation is hard I want to remember that:
My mantra for the day is:
I choose to love and forgive myself for these things:
This situation has helped me grow in these ways:
This situation is serving me in these ways:

Journaling has really been helping me through this process. Besides these journal prompts I’ve also just been free writing a few pages in the morning and at night. I really try to give myself a safe space to write anything that comes out without judgment. I never go back and reread what I wrote because I don’t want to let any judgments about what I wrote sneak into my brain.

If you want some more journal prompts I have a whole post of them you can check out.

If you’re walking through a tough season I hope these tips help you find the silver lining.

I think it’s important to remember that live comes in seasons and if you’re walking through a hard time it will eventually pass.

I try to remind myself that there are blessings waiting for me in the future and to remind myself that there are lots of great things ahead of me that I don’t know about right now.