Too often we are do not embrace the hardships in our daily lives.

In this case I am not talking about the big things like family members dying, jobs being lost and relationships being destroyed.

Rather I am referring to the little things that don’t go as planned.

Notice that I did not say things that go wrong, but rather don’t go as we planned. This is a key point I want to talk about here along with how to change the way we think about these events.

Nothing Ever Goes Wrong

In life we will have all heard people complaining about things that went wrong in their day which caused them pain.

‘The bus was late’, ‘our client changed his mind at the last minute’, ‘the power went out and I lost all the data on my computer’.

But all of these statements arise from a preconceived idea of how the world should be.

We believe that buses arrive at scheduled times, that our house always has power.

Then when reality throws up something against what we believed we are so rigid in our thinking that we believe the external world has made a mistake, done something incorrect or wrong.

But the world is as it is in every moment.

There is no right way for the world to be, nor any wrong way.

We have to stop trying to put the world in a box in our heads.

More than Accepting Hardship: Cold Shower Please

When I arrived at my apartment in India I found that not only did I have a broken shower head such that half of the water went out the window but also that I had no hot water.

Watching myself I immediately saw thoughts and feelings of frustration and a host of other things.

Kicking them out I was able to see the reality of the situation.

For the next few days I had cold showers, no complaining, no annoyance, no problem.

This is different to accepting that you have to deal with only being able to have cold showers. From this view you are still harboring the desire for a hot shower.

What we really want is to be happy having a cold shower. Because it is simply a cold shower, it is as it is.

This is not doing any mental tricks so I can say ‘oh I’m grateful for having any water at all’ because then all you are doing is cultivating desire for water. When the water stops then you are back to square one again.

Clear the Mind and Heart and you will Clearly see the World

All the pain related to hardship comes from thoughts and emotions.

Clear them out and you will clearly see the world.

Then when you do not have hot water you may not even have a cold shower, you will simply be washing.

Embrace freedom.