When Life Gives You Lemons

This episode aims to encourage you to acknowledge your story and visit the narrative you tell about yourself and your life.  As the saying goes when life gives you lemons make lemonade.

Before we go any further, I took the liberty of looking at what can be done with lemons initially I went with how I could make something to eat or drink, to my amazement there are so many ways to use lemons from masking odours, reviving cutting boards, preventing bugs, cleaning toilets, killing weeds, preventing brown apples and the list goes on.

One way or another life can be sour. Seeing that it’s the start of a new year I thought I might mention that when the clock ticks over change doesn’t automatically happen, pain doesn’t cease, and the challenges we face don’t magically disappear.  The idea is nice but is it a reality? While I love a brand-new year and everything that comes with it, I believe this kind of “instant mindset” can set us up to question our capability, cause frustration, limit our growth and leave us feeling stuck. Not only can this be disheartening, but it can be cruel, placing such an expectation on ourselves.

I wonder if it’s even possible to walk through life and not experience disappointment, heartbreak, loss, pain, regret just to name a small handful. Acknowledging that life has given us lemons could be the very place to start. I often hear people say “others have it harder than me, and here I am complaining about this”. While this might be true to a degree, and some may have it harder but that is not the point, we must acknowledge our pain and our experience despite if we think others have it harder than us or not. How can you make something with your lemons if you don’t acknowledge you have them in the first place?

Once we have acknowledged our experience, this is where we visit the narrative. This is where we can establish the meaning we give to our story, discover our purpose and what we want to be about. It’s identifying the skills that we have gained along the way and embracing our story even if we would have chosen a different plot. It’s about finding our voice to tell our story in the hopes that it might bring comfort to another. It’s looking at our story with a new perspective.

On a finishing note, looking at our story can be a tough process, and I would encourage you to go at your own pace when you feel ready to do so. If there is a sense of feeling stuck, perhaps you might consider a counsellor to walk with you through the process. What is your story up to this point? Are you a survivor, an overcomer? Are you strong and capable? When life gives you lemons remind yourself of how far you have come! Until next time take care