Stress kills. Period. Stress, anxiety, worry, fear, panic… these sorts of things start as psychological or emotional discomforts, but end up manifesting as physical illnesses. Our bodies create symptoms as a red flag to our brains: “Whatever you are doing, STOP IT!!!”

Recently I told you I was waiting for a diagnosis, because I felt worse than I’d ever felt in my life. My blood work, chest X-rays, and EKG all came back squeaky clean. I’m fit as a fiddle (contrary to all probability, given my lifestyle). This was great news, but didn’t answer the question of why I felt like I was dying.

As it turns out, the answer seems to be… stress.

The doc and I had actually dismissed this possible diagnosis early on in the question-and-answer session because I’m about as chillaxed as a person can get. I don’t work, my kid doesn’t go to school, I don’t have complicated family relations, or any of the usual stress factors. I’m not over-scheduled, frazzled, or spreading myself too thin. I don’t exactly fit the “stress case” profile–I’m a case study in how to remain calm. So we went ahead with the testing, just to be safe.

Once I passed all my tests with flying colors (I’ve always been a great test-taker, you know) we started digging deeper… below the surface. What I’m realizing is that there is such a thing as too chillaxed. I may be relaxing myself to death. Because I am so determined to keep a mellow vibe, live a simple life, remain calm and not let things bother me, what I’m doing instead is bottling up stuff inside.

I don’t freak out; I internalize. I don’t take frustrations out on others (which is nice), but I swallow them whole (projecting them onto my vital organs). Remaining calm in stressful situations is good in that it keeps the stress level from escalating into dangerous territory, but this only works if the stressful emotions are resolved in a healthy fashion.

I need to find an outlet for life’s little “bite my lip and grind my teeth” moments. These are a few tricks I use, when something stressful happens, to stay level-headed and effective:

1. DON’T PANIC – This reminds me to keep my head on straight… and makes me think of Douglas Adams, which always makes me smile.

2. TAKE THE PLACEBO – Everyone has some thing or some ritual that they firmly believe helps them relax. Whether it is scientifically proven to work or not is irrelevant. What matters is that it works for the individual… maybe it’s yoga, meditation, exercise, drinking a cup of chamomile tea, whatever. I like to do the ritual upfront, so I can breathe deeply (oxygenate my brain for optimal function).

3. GATHER INFORMATION – This is like the discovery process in a legal case, when you gather all relevant information, files, research, phone numbers, and anything else that even remotely pertains to the problem you are trying to solve. The trick is to not spend too much time in this phase, so get what you really need and move on.

4. MAKE LIST 1 – These are the variables you CAN control… it’s your to-do list, items you will need to accomplish in the next day, or week, or month, in order to solve the problem.

5. MAKE LIST 2 - These are things that worry you, but you can do nothing about. For instance, you CAN book a last minute flight. You might panic that the weather may delay your flight, but you CAN’T do anything about the weather. So this goes on List 2. You have acknowledged it as an item that worries you, but you are putting it out of your head for the time being, in order to focus on List 1.

6. TACKLE LIST 1 – Start checking items off this list. Anything you CAN do, relatively easily, should be handled right away so you can make progress towards a solution and have something to occupy your mind instead of worrying. Getting some things accomplished will help you feel relief right away.

7. REACH OUT – Share your burden with someone else. Maybe you talk to friends or family, or a therapist, or the blogosphere, but find someone to talk to about things. Sometimes just getting the thoughts out of your head makes them a little less daunting.

8. REVISIT LIST 2 – When you have completed all the items on List 1, take another look at List 2. By this point, some time has passed, and you may be calmer (better able to deal with the uncertainties). You may also notice that much of what you CAN do has been done, and there isn’t that much left to worry about. Now is the time to practice faith, trust, and patience. Sometimes we just have to wait. Breathe.

(I had items 9 and 10 on this list, but decided they didn’t add much value… and I’m not that obsessed with round numbers.)

What I’m missing now is the “What to do with toxic emotions once a crisis has been averted” part.

Two options I keep coming back to are:

9. Write – Sometimes I write in journals, or I post on the blog. Sometimes I furiously fill a page with all my rage, then rip it to pieces or set in on fire. These things tend to get the thoughts out of my head, but don’t actually solve anything. I am still left feeling… helpless.

10. Play – Many times when I am facing stressful conditions, I step away from them and immerse myself in Hunter’s world. Kids live in the present moment, and focus only on the things they are interested in. This serves as a lovely distraction, for a while, but it isn’t a long term solution.

But the thing is, when I’ve exhausted all of my coping mechanisms, there are some “issues” that remain… that will always be there, that I can do NOTHING about, but must learn to co-exist with. Some issues are hugely painful, terribly unfair, and not at all things I’ll ever be OK with… but, so what? Who ever said life would be fair?

Sometimes the things that stress us out don’t go away, and don’t get resolved, and never get better. What then?

I’m asking, really, because I don’t have a neat and tidy answer… obviously, or I probably wouldn’t have ended up in the doctor’s office. So now I want to know:

What do YOU do when life sits you in a corner, against a wall, and says, “On this particular issue, you will get NOTHING… and like it”? I mean, after crying, pouting, kicking and screaming… then what?

Thanks!!!

(Photo Credit)

Remaining Calm in Stressful Situations is a post from: Quest for Balance

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Be Modest, And Be Boring. If You ARE Great…BE Great.

Marc Pachter, who has interviewed some of the most intriguing characters in recent American history, makes the point that modest people make the worst interviewees. He argues that people need to think they have done something with their lives, and have a story worth telling, or no amount of clever word play is going to be worth two hours of any audience’s time.

Have you DONE something with your life? Do you have a STORY worth telling?

Are you GOING to do something with your life? Will you HAVE a story worth telling?

I glanced at an answer given by Amanda Holden recently, who I believe is one of the judges of English Pop Idol, to the question “How would you rate your looks?” Her answer?

“When I’ve just got up and am taking the kids to school in a dressing gown, no more than a 6; but when I have make-up on, have done my hair and am dressed to impress, then 10 out of 10.”

How many of us would be quick to slate Amanda for her “big headedness”? She should have been modest, most would say, and said around a 7-8, even if she thought she was an 11.

WHY IS THIS?!

Why do we seem to have become a society that stifles and rejects greatness, and pulls those that begin to rise up back down to mediocrity?

Amanda is confident in her looks, in her abilities to make the most of them and it is this confidence that has helped take her far in the fleeting world of entertainment. I, for one, commend her for this.

Each one of us was born with greatness instilled into us. You were born instilled with greatness, and we all have the opportunity to LIVE great lives, DO great things and BE great people. You have this opportunity too.

You have the opportunity to LIVE a great life, DO great things, and BE a great individual.

So why do we all not live up to our potential greatness?

Why Do You Fear Being Great?

Many, no doubt, are familiar with the psychologist Abraham Maslow and his famous Hierarchy of Needs, which in summary, relates to how people can achieve their full humanness.

Maslow’s main life work focused on the idea that if we as a society focused on creating more individuals that had reached the benchmark of being “completely human” then society would move on in leaps and bounds that we could not imagine or fathom.

Maslow, in his research, explored the reasons why so few individuals, as far as he could tell, succeeded in reaching this benchmark of “full humanness,” and a big part of his life was devoted to exploring the self-coined “Jonah Complex.”

The Jonah Complex

Why is it that we are all born with limitless potential, yet few people fulfill those possibilities?

One of the reasons Maslow put forward is what he called the Jonah Complex. The biblical Jonah was a timid merchant who tried to resist God’s call for him to go on an important mission. Maslow’s complex refers to the “fear of one’s own greatness,” or avoiding our true destiny or calling.

Maslow observed that we fear our best as much as our worst.

Some people avoid seeking to be great because they fear being seen as grandiose, as wanting too much. Yet this can just become an excuse not to try.

Instead we adopt mock humility and set low aims for ourselves. The possibility of becoming remarkable shoots a thunderbolt of fear into unremarkable people.

Are you setting your aim in life low for the fear of being great? For the fear of people taking notice? For the fear of being different?

If you are settling for mediocre in this life because society deems it appropriate, then you are not being true to yourself and, because of this, you will never be truly happy and, ironically, this will also ensure you will never be able to fully relate to others or fully integrate into society.

The best and simplest way to fully integrate into society, to help others, be a great husband or wife, raise great kids, run great businesses, do great things, have great experiences and live a great life is to become who you truly are – in other words – TO BE GREAT.

We have lost the heroes of old in our generation today. Society today has no place for heroes anymore. From Alexander the GREAT and Julius Caesar to Churchill and De Gaulle, our environment is set up in such as way that these individuals are now viewed as arrogant and unacceptable because they refuse to jump back in and swim in the mediocrity of society.

We no longer, save for a few, have real life-and-death battles to fight, where one’s true greatness can sometimes be forced to the surface through circumstance.

We, as a society, have a different battleground; one of 9 to 5 jobs, television entertainment, and broken communities.

It is here that our greatness must come to the front. There are still battles to fight in our daily lives and still opportunities to not shy from our own greatness. As Maslow argues, possibly the best way to fix our current society is perhaps not to focus on others first, while limiting our own potential, but instead to focus on ourselves and make sure we are living up to all that we are capable of and then, once there, we can be a powerful force to help others.,

We do, however, have modern day heroes of the technological age. Great men and women like Barack Obama, J.K. Rowling, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, David Beckham, Jammie Oliver, Mark Zuckerberg, Francis Collins, and J. Craig Venter.

These people have achieved great things in sports, politics, entertainment, writing, entrepreneurship, and in their own way have changed the world. Most of these people have come from nowhere and with few advantages in life. This in itself should inspire belief that greatness is achievable, no matter what hand you were dealt in life.

Never Stifle The Greatness Of Others, Never Shy Away From Your Own

You have a choice – To Be Great Or Not To Be Great.

Whatever your choice, do not stifle or undermine those that are trying to be great. It is these people we need in our society, that will bring about the most positive change.

Do not shy from your own greatness. You are unique, your combination of skills, life experience and abilities are unique to you, and only you. You have the opportunity to be great, you need only embrace it.

As Maslow posed to his students after asking them which one would be the next President, or Inspirational moral leader, like Albert Schweitzer:

“If not you, then who else?”

*

Jonny writes for love of Helping People, Inspiring People and Katie Holmes. He honed his unique writing style through his refusal to read for fear the words would attack him, and borrowed his life philosophies from the local stray terrier, but plans to give aspects of them back.

*

What about YOU?

What holds you back from achieving greatness? Do you shy away from it? Do you agree with this assessment?

SHOULD we strive to be great? What does it mean to be great? How do you know when you have achieved it?

(Photo Credit)

Why Do You Fear Being Great, You Yellow-Bellied Coward? is a post from: Quest for Balance

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We all want to be thought of as the winner. The one that everyone can depend on. When others are in a jam, we want to be the ones everyone else looks towards to save the day.

We want to be fearless. We want to be courageous. We want to be strong.

And when we’re staring challenges right in the face, we want to be the ones who conquer them effortlessly.

I wanted to feel this way for a long time. I thought, when you faced great hardship, you had to be invincible, in both body and mind.

Little did I know that the only way to become truly invincible in the face of a challenge (being fearless, courageous, or strong) is only possible if you attempt it with no effort at all.

Otherwise, you’d better believe that you have to get your hands dirty if you truly want to conquer the obstacles that lay in your path.

You are only invincible in your dreams, but never in life.

A few years ago, I faced a significant challenge of my own.

For a long time, I was an introverted person. I feared that the world would reject me for being who I am. And for a while, I was right. The majority of the student body constantly regarded me as weird, different – an outsider. High school took a lot out of me.

To stop this mental torture, I decided to conform. To roll with the punches and do what it took to be thought of as ‘normal’ by the rest.

It was pretty painful to have to sacrifice your sense of self to fit in. To me, graduation was a Godsend.

But when I started college, I decided that I would change myself for the better. No longer would I pretend to be someone I was not. I would not give myself any chance to be revert back to my old ways.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy. Four years of conformity isn’t an easy thing to get rid of. I expected to fail. But I didn’t care. I was tired of the way my life was going. Some sort of change was absolutely necessary, so I felt I had no choice but to act.

You guessed it… I lost A LOT.

I decided that no matter how scared I was, I would make new friends by being myself. I would open myself up. And I would ignore the criticisms of others.

This part wasn’t fun at all. Sometimes I would say something stupid, awkward, or just socially inept, that made people raise their eyebrows.

But over time (while I was afraid and practically making myself look foolish,) I began to notice mistakes that I used to make, and stop them before they happened. It was incredible. It was like my mind was on auto-pilot (mistakes were at some moments present, but easily forgotten).

I learned something precious then:

If I had never lost, I never would’ve won.

All of the embarrassment I felt, all the conversations, and all the blood, sweat, and tears – they were necessary to make me the person you see before you.

These losses may feel disheartening at least the first time (trust me, I’ve wanted to give up SO MANY TIMES), but underneath the pain, there is insightful knowledge to be gained.

Forget what the “experts” say.

All of this controversy regarding whether failure is necessary to succeed, or whether you can succeed without failing, has to end. It doesn’t matter who you are – you have failed at some point in your life.

Failure has been misunderstood. We tend to think failure as the end of the line. Like there are no more chances after we fail.

Well, that’s not true.

We lose battles all the time.

Find something you’ve long since given up, but still care about. Or pick something you currently feel disheartened about. Do you see it?

Now, get back on the horse.

We lose battles for a reason. Losing prepares us for the winning that is soon to come.

You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to quit everything I’ve ever done – school, my blog, or just something trivial like beating a video game.

I’ve wanted to quit all of these things, but I knew that I would hate myself if I did. Giving up just wasn’t in me. And it shouldn’t be in you either.

You can lose 10, 20, or even a 100 times. But get back up a 10, 20, or a 100 times more than you lose.

Forget the fearlessness, courageousness, and strength that you think you need to overcome great hardships or massive challenges. Just try, and fail… a lot. Eventually, you’ll get the success you seek.

Always remember that it is only when you’ve reached a certain number of attempts and defeats can you truly be deemed a winner.

Do not waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What about you?

Does fear of failing hold you back from trying to achieve your goals and dreams? Were there times when you almost gave up, but chose to get up and keep going, instead?

(Photo Credit)

Why Losing Some of the Time is Necessary to Winning All of the Time is a post from: Quest for Balance

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“Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life, which is the sine qua non in becoming an integrated person. “
Warren G. Bennis

When Lisis recently wrote about her life in Nobody Trips Over Mountains, I was deeply moved to the core. Her story, and her being able to share it with the world, is simply courageous on her part. That post nudged me to become courageous too; well not as much as Lisis, but I’m trying.

Today, here, I am mustering the courage to be able to share a little of my life with you all. No, I might not be able to share every detail; I still don’t have the courage for that. But I can certainly share what I have learned on the way, in the hope that it might be of some value to you as well.

My simple learning journey, becoming the person that I am today:

1. Everyone has problems in their lives

Everyone goes through ups and downs. I like to think of every experience good or bad as a GEM. A gem is always a gem full of light and beauty, whichever way you turn it. So are our experiences, full of lessons of life. I know my life is no different from any of yours. Nor are my problems bigger than any of yours.

I know that NOW. At the time, while in the eye of the storm, everything seemed to be the worst possible thing that could ever happen to anybody. But that’s far from the truth, ’cause there are people with far worse problems.

So, from a turbulent childhood, to a heart broken one too many times, to a psychologically, emotionally and physically violent ex-marriage, to a father’s death, to a younger brother’s death, to a mother’s breakdown (who is now perfectly fine), to finding myself, finding love, finding happiness, finding my true calling, and most of all having a baby, and to starting my blog… I can safely say ‘been there done that’! Phew !!

OK it doesn’t look like a pretty great picture, but it was a great journey. I learned so many valuable lessons and am still learning every single day. So it’s safe to say my journey is still going strong.

2. There’s no need to put up a brave front all the time

When I was stuck in a horrible marriage for three years, I put up a brave front. Everyone who saw me, thought I was the happiest married girl alive. I thought it beyond my dignity to admit that I was in a horrible situation and I needed help. Maybe in those three years, if I had confided in someone and been open about my problems, I wouldn’t have suffered for so long. I would have found a way out sooner.

3. It’s OK to ask for help

When the breaking point came after three years, I picked up the phone and called my mum. She welcomed me with open arms, no questions asked. All my friends, brothers, family… everyone, OK almost everyone, understood and tried to be supportive. Which in itself was a big revelation for me, ’cause I actually thought they would oppose my decision for a divorce. It’s with their support at that time that I completed my degree and got my Masters.

4. It’s OK to cry

I still have the habit in me to put up a brave front. I still refuse to show if I am hurting. But, it’s a very opaque habit now. It’s there, maybe it’s my nature; but that’s not an excuse to be Miss Brave all the time. I am human, I feel and so I cry too. The time I was dating my baby’s daddy, because of all the problems I had gone through with my previous marriage, I was like a closed vault. I refused to let him IN and I refused to drop down my guard. But he held on, he didn’t let go. He took all the crap and the negativity I threw at him, and still held on.

And then, one fine day, I broke down. I must’ve cried for hours, I think it was all night. All that was pent up was coming out. That was the turning point of our relationship. It was on that very day we decided to get married or rather I decided, ’cause he had already made up his mind to spend his life with me. Two months from that day, and after seeing each other for more than three years, we were husband and wife.

Today I proudly say I am Happily married, ’cause I can truly understand and feel in my core what Happy means. You have to drop your guard and just let go sometimes, in order for you to truly be happy and experience life.

5. Embrace Your imperfections

I have seen how I, and many others, have a fixation for being like someone. I am still very moved by a few huge personalities: Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dale Carnegie, and Deepak Chopra, to name a few. Notice how I go from the self-sacrificing kind to the more realistic kind. Well over the years that’s what’s happened. This thing about being like someone has gone away.

Today I know what my assets are, I know what my shortcomings are, and I know Me. I can’t be or try to be like someone else ’cause it will mean I will lose my own personality in the bargain. Nobody or any personality is perfect! You’re Not Perfect, so why try to be?? I prefer embracing my imperfections, ’cause that’s what makes me, and each one of us, unique.

Rather than hiding our flaws, why not look into how they can be of use to help those around you? Like my blabbery and jabbery self, which was a bad thing while I was in school; my teachers would always complain “too talkative”, but it is now a good thing when I counsel my patients and give motivational seminars. Being talkative has helped me help others.

6. Help others to help yourself

In my most unhappy hours, I have made it a point to get out there and do some kind of social work, like visiting old age homes, visiting a special needs children’s center just to play with the kids there, or just asking my domestic helper how her day is going and lending her a kind ear. These small acts of acknowledging another human being magically make me feel better.

In opening up my heart to another person’s problems, my problems fade away. This is the very reason I started my blog. To help. To be of service, not just in the geographical location where I stay, but wherever my blog may reach. I know this is my True calling: “To ease and be of service to another human being.”

I hope at the end of this learning journey, while I lay to rest, I have no regrets. For I want to be able to open up my treasure box full of lovely gems (experiences) and say, “I’m rich, ’cause I know each and every shining gem, and I have adorned my life with each and every one of them.”

What are some of the life lessons you have learned during your journey?

(Photo Credit)

Learning and Becoming: Six Life Lessons is a post from: Quest for Balance

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Nobody trips over mountains.
It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.
Pass all the pebbles in your path,
and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

*

Recently, a reader shared this passage with me, and it really got me thinking about some of the “pebbles” I’ve passed in my life. As I looked back on my story, I realized, I really have crossed a mountain. Here are just a few of the stops along the way:

I was born in Honduras, raised in Costa Rica until 6th grade, went to Middle School, High School and College in California, and grad school in Georgia.

When I was 11, I went to Brazil for Children’s International Summer Villages… I learned that people are people no matter what they look like, or where they live. When I was 15, I went to five countries in Europe with my dad… I learned that people are people no matter what they look like, or where they live. When I was 17, I went to Hong Kong alone on a business trip for my dad… guess what I learned? Yup.

People are people, no matter what they look like, or where they live

We all want the same things in life… we want to be safe, we want to love and be loved, we want to be able to provide for those we care for, and we want to get through the though times and back to the good times.

I’ve had my share of tough times, and I’ve learned there are no degrees of challenges. One man’s problems are no better or worse than another’s.

Challenges are ALWAYS difficult, whether you are 15 and suffering because your boyfriend won’t call you (which I did), or 30-something and praying for your child to survive his life-threatening surgery (which I did). It doesn’t matter… whatever you are going through at any given time feels like the most painful and challenging thing anyone has ever had to endure.

But know this, you will get through it… whatever it is. I promise.

When I was in college, I lived in a sea of bliss. I was a pilot, attending UCSD, and flying around Southern California like a butterfly in a garden, without a care in the world. About the only problem I had was that stupid boyfriend who wouldn’t call back, or maybe a mid-term or final exam I wasn’t prepared for (darnit, Physics!). I had some hints of depression, but overall, life was pretty peachy.

Then, in 1999, my dad crashed his plane while my mom and another couple were in it. Both moms died that day, crushed by the wing of the plane. (Yeah, MY mom.) Both dads ended up in wheelchairs, and thrown into a life they didn’t choose. My dad became widowed, paraplegic, and bipolar (triggered by the stress, I suppose) all at once. I no longer gave a sh*t about Physics… or boys, or flying, or anything.

Life Happens

Three months after the accident, I met Jeff on a blind date. Six weeks later we were engaged, and on September 3, 1999, we got married. That was a big year for me. The new millennium promised to look NOTHING like my “old life”. In fact, for a long time I felt like my old life never really existed at all… it was just a dream… I dreamed I was once a butterfly.

My old life was about flying in California, and hanging out with my parents. My new life was about hospitals, grief, trauma, and family issues in Georgia… oh, and marriage… a whole new family and set of friends. NONE of the people I was around, including Jeff, had ever met my parents, or seen me fly a plane. The person I was before the accident no longer existed. Very few people even KNEW that person, or that life. I didn’t know who I was.

In 2000, our son, Hunter, was born… then I knew who I was: I was Hunter’s mom. I loved him to pieces, and he became my reason for hope, but it was a huge struggle dealing with postpartum depression piled on top of grief and my identity crisis.

Fortunately, I was still in touch with two friends from my “old life,” Alison (FairyBlogMother) and Lou. They became my sanity check, reminding me that my old life really did happen. I clung to them for dear life!

In 2004, we cashed out our 401K, and moved to Costa Rica for a year. In 2005 we moved to Austin. That Christmas, Lou shot himself. For a long time, I blamed myself.

Six months later, Hunter had what was supposed to be a simple Chiari surgery on his skull, which did not go “as planned”. Most of 2006 was spent watching Hunter either suffer extreme pain daily, or recover from the “repair” surgery in a halo for several months. So… 2006 was a tough year.

We moved to Georgia, to a secluded house in the country, where I homeschooled Hunter (it was not exactly safe to send him to regular school), read all things philosophical and spiritual, and filled journals with a sea of emotions that poured out from within the depths of my confused soul.

In March of 2008, my dad died. He simply stopped wanting to live. That moment marked the end of a decade-long chapter.

I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and, one day… the storm had subsided. The sun rose, and I even noticed a rainbow or two.

I could breathe again.

I could smile again.

I wanted to live again.

Just like that.

Now I want only one thing.

I want everyone else to feel that inner peace and happiness.

I am no fool; I know tough times still lie ahead. Challenges are just part of life. But I also know that I will get through them, and that joy awaits on the other side. Nothing lasts forever. The tough times will pass, so I don’t need to let them overwhelm me. The good times will also pass, so I should make the most of them while they are here.

When times are difficult, I look for little things to focus on and get me through: my son’s smile, the beauty of Fall, roasting marshmallows by a camp fire, racing giant pumpkins in the lake… just about anything will do. When times are easy, I make a mental (and often written) list of all the things that bring me joy, so I can remind myself at times when they are not so easy to see.

At ALL times, I want to help others get through their difficult moments. I want to help YOU.

I finally know who I am… a person who cares, whose shoulder was made to cry on. I can always be reached at this email: MyQuestForBalance (at) gmail (dot) com.

So now, October 2009, we live in Vermont. I write what I feel, and post it at Quest for Balance in the hopes that it will help someone else feel a little bit less alone, or a little more understood. The stories come from my life, but this blog isn’t about me… it’s About You.

In fact, I would love to know more about you. If you are a regular commenter, consider sharing some new tidbit that we probably didn’t know about you. If you have never commented before, maybe you could just let me know you are out there… simply say Hi. I would love to meet you.

Thanks!!!

Have you passed a lot of pebbles on your path up the mountain? Have you stumbled over any? Have you made it to the other side?

(Photo Credit)

Inspiration: Nobody Trips Over Mountains is a post from: Quest for Balance

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