Seeing experience as blessing is a skill anyone can learn. But how do you learn this skill? Besides, is it necessary? Can’t you just wing it? Consider these tips.
“Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it.” – Buddha.
Experience as Blessing: Quick, Simple Tips
There’s certainly no shortage of experiences, but experience as blessing? We have dozens of experiences every day. Some are more memorable than others. However, some cause us pain.
Furthermore, we can accept some experiences easily while others linger with more negative emotions. Yet each of these experiences is valuable. How so? Consider the following.
Experience Teaches
We learn from doing, even if that lesson is what not to do the next time. For example, if you burn your fingers picking up a skillet handle, you immediately feel the pain, so remember to use a potholder or towel when you attempt to do this again. On the other hand, when something significant happens, this experience also teaches a worthwhile lesson.
To See Experience as Blessing, Use it
Everyone has experience, so why not use them? Tune into the moment instead of sleepwalking through the day, going on autopilot, and having no sense of place or time. Feel and be present in what you’re doing.
- Inhabit every part of what you do, whether when making coffee, getting ready, driving to work, shopping, running errands, taking a yoga class, or walking during lunch.
- Also, notice how your body feels, the rhythm of your breathing, the sights and sounds, and the touch of things around you.
- This is using your experience – and it will fill you with an appreciation of life. Embrace and take every experience.
How to Deal with Painful Experiences
OK, so we can support the lesson that experience teaches. We all have experiences, so we’ll try to use them. How can we begin to see experiences as blessings, particularly those that are painful or ones we’re desperate to forget? Shouldn’t we try to get past those as quickly as possible?
- Think about who we are today and how we got here. Not in the sense of physical movement but in the choices we’ve made.
- What we’ve done is a result of deliberate and conscious choice. We are a product of our actions and our experiences. Good or bad, experiences add meaning to life and shape us. This is a hidden blessing.
Returning to the burnt fingers from a hot skillet, the experience, while painful, taught us a valuable lesson: don’t do that again. It also makes us grateful that we are alive and can continue, although with a sore finger. Sometimes, pain brings us back to the present like nothing else. Again, this is a way to see the experience as a blessing.
Learn to Feel Most Experience as Blessing
Mostly, though, the blessings inherent in experience are more transparent. We get good grades or praise from the boss on a project, which translates into something better.
- Digging into the garden to plant seeds, bulbs, or transplant flowers or shrubs yields an immediate blessing: beauty, a sense of accomplishment, and a transformed setting.
- Talking with a loved one who’s traveling or visiting a sick friend to bring some cheer is also an experience rich with blessings.
Think about your actions today and your experiences from when you got up. What about them made you smile, enriched your life, and fulfilled you? There’s a blessing in each one of them. All you need to do is look for it.
