When life gives me lemons, I make lemonade.
Lemonade is tasty, but its main ingredient is bitter. I have a recipe for lemonade that I have made many times in my life.
Here is my recipe:
Mix lemons (life challenges) with sweetener (control of your how you respond to an uncontrollable event). Add a bit of apple juice (using your experience to help others). Stir. You now have delicious life lemonade. And you have much less depression and anxiety.
My anxiety and depression both start with a negative event that I cannot control. Although I cannot control the event, I can control how I react to it. When I successfully control how I react to the event, I feel better about myself. Then I help others.
I made life lemonade when my Grandma died. I loved her more than life itself. When she died, the world as I knew it crumbled into tiny pieces and scattered in outer space. I could not control her death, but I did control my reaction to her death. I went to a grief counselor. We worked out how I could move on without her. Then I volunteered at a nursing home to give thanks for her life and her love. I felt much less depression and anxiety because I maintained control of how I reacted through the grief process.
Then on Easter Sunday this year, I made more life lemonade. I felt anxious and depressed but I maintained control of my reaction. Instead of keeping my feelings inside, I wrote about them to try to help others. I felt better about my holiday struggle. Then I woke up the next day with no regrets and my depression and anxiety separated from me.
You cannot control life’s challenges. But you can control how you react to them.
When you control how you react to a challenge,
you are still in control.
When you remind yourself you are still in control, you reduce depression and anxiety. To further reduce your depression and anxiety, you take control further by using the situation to help someone else. When you feel better, your PTSD does not bug you as much.
You can turn your challenges into “life lemonade”.
Let the encouraging words in these bobbiejrae posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
What does the fire of your soul do to others around you?
Succeed in spite of adversity like a weed does.
Yes, YOU can change the world!
Make this important call.
One comment on “Recipe for Life Lemonade”
Sandy
January 13, 2018 at 3:48 pmThanks for sharing this recipe to help us get over the bouts of difficult times! We are none exempt from these experiences in life. The secret of course, as you so clearly identified, is something we can control instead of it controlling us. Thanks B. J. !