Spirituality

Spirituality means having a sense of unity with the universe. People who have a sense of meaning in life are better able to cope with the life problems and ultimately are healthier.


When Life Sucks: On Perseverance and Enduring Life Problems

“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.” – Buddhist saying

Let’s admit it: from time to time life sucks.  Sometimes it sucks a lot and often it sucks a little.

About ten years ago my life and lives of many people around me turned very grim.  When the economies of Eastern Europe collapsed, everyone was stretched to the limit and was just trying to hang on there.  Millions of people, including my parents, lost their lifetime savings overnight.  Unemployment was 60%, and even those who kept their jobs were not paid sometimes for years.  Mental disease rates tripled in a few years. Just to survive was a struggle.

At that time my close friend, a young health professional, died of a heart attack at the age of a little over thirty.  To say that I was in shock – is to say nothing.  It felt like the whole world collapsed and all the prospects look so dark.  In a situation like this, the only thing one wants, is to get into a hole and never come back again.





Many of us will face a life crisis of some sort.  However, more often though, our life struggles are not as dramatic.  Instead of huge blows we are served with little nagging annoyance-type of problems, bordering with quiet desperation.

It looks like ‘everything is ok’ but it feels that ‘life sucks’.  It looks like we have so much: a job, a family, money, a house and many other things that are supposed to make us happy.

But at the same time we feel stretched to the limit and our ‘to do’ list is just overwhelming.  We slowly realize that we ‘hate it all’.  Life just doesn’t make sense and has no meaning.  And again, a typical reaction is to isolate, to hide away and silently suffer.





Regardless of the problem, big or small, the solution is simple, although not easy.  At times like this we need a balance between the two basic health folders: Spirituality (letting go and relying on the higher power) and Control of Destiny (relying on ourselves).

Here’s a simple framework to deal with life challenges: it’s called AID (Assess, Information, Do).

First Assess your situation.  Look at your Ten Folders of Health for what might have changed.  Refocus on your true priorities.  Throw away ballast and figure out what you want from life.

Get hold of as much Information and resources as you possibly can.  Sources are plenty: books, articles, ask your family or friends, look inside of your own mind and soul.  Collect the information that will help you to formulate strategies on addressing challenges and try to make a plan: ‘the next two weeks I will spend 15 minutes a day praying, 30 minutes a day exercising, 1 hour a day sorting out my relationships, and 2 hours per day looking for a new job’.

Do what you have planned.  Do it as good as you can.  Keep your priorities in mind, focus on solution, and try to focus on the solution, forget the problem.  Hope and action cures a lot of things.





In a nutshell, all you have to do when you are facing some problems is to keep open and keep putting one foot in front of another as good as you can.  Keep on doing your part and do not worry about the rest.  The world around you will take care of itself and the spring will come…  Even if it doesn’t look like it, it will.