What if your greatest challenge was in fact your greatest blessing?

Guest blogger and Container Collective Yogi, Rachel Sizemore writes….

Yoga turns my world upside down – literally and figuratively. In yoga, we are continually called to inversion, to go upside down, to get our heads on the other side of our hearts. And not simply at the end of class with shoulder-stand, headstand or handstand. Every down dog is a mini inversion, a mini opportunity to turn the world upside down, and here’s the key: to look at the world differently.

So many of us charge through the world, full steam ahead, waging constant battle with the blocks and challenges before us. We become so static in our perspective, looking at things one way, the same way, over and over.  What if we let the practice of yoga inspire us, to not only physically shift our perspective but mentally as well?  What if we turned things upside down?

What if your greatest challenge was in fact your greatest blessing?

This question changed my life (It was first posed to me by the insightful self-help author John Gray).  From a very young age, I found myself battling a black tide of depressive feeling.  It only rarely knocked me off my feet, but it was nearly always there, threatening.

It took years and tremendous effort, but when I began to consider this constant challenge as a blessing, I saw how it kept me from settling in life and kept me constantly moving towards creating a life I love.  Because any other life just didn’t feel worth living to me.

Through the art of inversion, I’ve learned to embrace and move with the way my brain works rather than battle against it, and I have finally experienced true relief.  I know this challenge is calling me forward to the life I am meant to lead, and once I stepped into that, the “messenger” got to quiet down.

Where in your life are you battling a challenge, a physical, mental or emotional pain? Is there a way to invert your perspective on it? To see the gift, the true “challenge” the universe is putting forth to you?

Rachel Sizemore is a holistic health and happiness coach. She guides her clients to let go of their old stories and perspectives, so they can cultivate adventure, energy, love, and joy. Follow along at RachelSizemore.com or on Instagram, @rksize.