When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We often hear this proverbial phrase, but we may not be giving enough credit to its positive meaning. We already know, by now, that living is relatively easy. What’s hard for me may be easy for others, and vice versa. We would regularly face challenges of varying difficulties. Challenges are products of actions we take in response to what life presents us. Whatever we do, there will always be an equal and opposite reaction. You may have heard that from Newton’s Third Law, but if we put it in simpler terms, it only explains how we interact with the world we live in—a continuous cycle of consequences and causations.
When things get tough, we often seek rest, and sometimes we even have to scream for it. However, when we get the chance to, how do we use the time given? Some of us find rest in tuning out the noise of a world that ceaselessly wails. We do things that make us feel better. We try everything we could to get a little bit of peace. When our body is tired, we can take a seat or sleep it off. Resting the body is easy, but doing the same for the mind and soul is a different challenge. When our mind gets exhausted, no matter how hard our body begs us to go to bed, there is no stopping the mind from wandering into the black hole of thoughts.
Make more lemonade. Make it a good one.
The good thing is life does not forsake the living. When our backs are against the wall, there is always a way to turn things around and make things work for us. If you know you have an affinity for drowning yourself in the pool of your own thoughts, use it to your advantage. Pivot how your mind runs by analyzing whether a thought is a lemon worth the squeeze. More often than not, when you set your mind that something is insignificant, it would likely no longer linger. Squeeze that lemon, and make some lemonade out of it. If it doesn’t give you juice, throw it.
Life is too short to worry about things that are not serving us. Our challenges will never stop. We may not be able to control it, but we can manage how we spend our energy. The best we can do is devote our time to the things we can control rather than worry about those we cannot. Most importantly, allow yourself to have a break. Push yourself to the limit, but only if you know when to pull yourself back to stable ground. Peace only comes when you know you can take yourself out of the woods. Once you are out, go take a sip from a glass of ice-cold lemonade. You deserve it.
