Do You Have What It Takes?

Away from home for the very first time this year, has been an experience. It has been a time of a lot of change, and people trying to change me.  For this year, is the first time I have had the following told to me:

I can’t do this.

I don’t deserve to be here.

I shouldn’t have even thought that I ever had a chance.

Before this year, I had never faced so much difficulty from the world on the physical, mental, social, emotional or spiritual level.

I’ve learned that when it comes to really being out on your own, you don’t have all the answers. You don’t always know what the best choice is. You don’t even have the slightest idea of how you are going to survive this, if you survive at all. And you can’t listen to everyone else.

For the first time, I have lived with uncertainty. That accumulated into insecurity. That accumulated into anxiety. That accumulated into the worst of them all: fear.

At first, I tried looking for security in other people. I’ve looked for support in others to prop me up, to get through these times. But, at the end of the day, there’s only one person that’s going to get you through it all:

YOU.

When I realized this, I knew that if I was going go on this journey, I was going to have to do it on my own two feet. I had to support myself. I had to look to myself in times of trouble.

I had to believe in myself.

With no doubt. With no disbelief. I had to devote myself to knowing that I CAN DO THIS. I had to fully recognize that I TRUST MYSELF to be able to get through anything that came my way. And, if all these things are coming from the universal plane and entering my physical plane, then I realized I also had to START BELIEVING IN THE UNIVERSE.

For belief in yourself is just an extension of belief in the universe.

We all know and have been told that things happen for a reason. But do we really believe it? For a very, very, very long time, I thought I understood this. But when I saw what happens when you don’t, I’ve realized just how very important this statement is. Even if it seems like whatever obstacles you are facing will set you back, they were sent directly to you to send you directly forward. Once I saw that EVERYTHING THAT ENTERS MY LIFE IS HERE TO PROGRESS MY ONENESS AND AWARENESS, life changed.

With only the greatest trust in the universe, I have become more spiritually aware than I ever have before. As hard, as challenging, and as difficult as this has been, I am grateful that this has, by its own means, brought me closer to Being than anything else could ever have. I now understand so much more about the human experience: love, loss, pain, grief, fear, sorrow, and determination.

So yes, this year, I’ve stumbled. I’ve tripped.

But I’ve gotten right back up.  And I keep going on.

With love for the universe, and love for myself, I now understand far more about the wonderful experience and incredible journey called life. We, in the grandest of sense, are here to experience it all, even if it hurts more than can be handled, even if it’s harder than deemed possible. But when we experience it, we become more connected to ourselves and to each other on levels we can’t even fathom.

Once we recognize this, we start to see the greatness in ourselves. And once we see that, we are the miracles that we wish for. For belief, at the end of the day, is what separates a good life from a full life.

As long as you have your belief in whatever you are passionate about, in whatever you know to be, and in the very essence of you, you have what it takes. Now go out there and show it.

(Lauren Rourk is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and attends Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. She can be contacted at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)