....there was a glass wall stuck right down the middle of it. Every time these little goldfish tried to swim the length of the aquarium—clunk—they'd knock their little noses right into the glass wall. Over time, they became resigned to their limits and made a life of swimming in just that half of the aquarium. The researchers let a few months pass then removed the glass wall barrier. Now the goldfish had full liberty to swim the whole length, BUT...
....the goldfish didn’t try. They were no longer stopped by a glass wall.....they were stopped by their limiting beliefs!!!
How are we humans doing in this regard? When we experience obstacles and setbacks, do we pile up -even sometimes heap up- limiting beliefs about ourselves? Observation tells me that we can tend to get bogged down; we can tend to consciously or subconsciously set up glass walls in our lives, limiting our happiness and our view about how life supposedly is or how we think it’s supposed to be. Perhaps a set-back in love may be discouraging some of us, or the loss of a loved one. Or perhaps we are in the grips of a downfall or weakness. Or maybe we grew up amid dysfunction. Please know – this is not to diminish the obstacles and pains we each uniquely face . . . yet, gradually we may allow these limiting beliefs and feelings to stop us from living our fullest, happiest lives.
Notice how typically we view weddings and birthdays and promotions at work as some of the best times to celebrate. But you know, there are many cultures around the world that believe with loss, death, difficulties, or destruction comes new life. For example, I have noticed in, frankly, every LDS funeral I have attended that the gathering becomes a rather uplifting, encouraging and reuniting event, even in a couple instances where the deceased person’s life was fraught with obstacles. Similarly, in Judaism, shiva is the ceremony after the funeral where family and friends gather to share happy memories of the deceased – almost an opportunity to remind the living to recognize the abundance in this world and live well this day while you can. As Edith Wharton once said, ““Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.”
Now take a look at this handful of examples from nature responding to seeming setbacks and destruction. Kari Archibald, professor of Recreation Management at BYU- Idaho once shared,
“Despite winter snows and sub-zero temperatures, a small delicate flower
called a spring beauty pushes up from the recently melted snow bank and
blossoms in the Teton Mountains. In the middle of an Arizona drought,
tough lizards of the Sonoran desert find water and food and carry
on. After a wildfire burns a mature forest to blackened stumps, small
herbaceous plants emerge from the blackened forest floor after the fire. That
same God who created these beautiful environments and the species that
inhabit them also created us. He endowed us with the same abilities of
physical renewal.“ (italics added)
She then went on to discuss the spiritual side of renewal, asking: How do we become spiritually renewed? What do we need to rebound from spiritual challenges? What keeps us from being resilient in the face of spiritual setbacks?
Sometimes it's the imperfections in this life (like the glass wall) that keep us from experiencing renewal. We expect life to happen just as we have pictured it to happen.
In the next blog on this theme, I’ll share some ideas I've collected on answers to these questions. Until then, remember these words the Lord shared with Moses concerning our abilities for renewal: “For this is my work and my glory” (this is the greatest hope and reason for the whole Plan of Salvation), “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” ~ Moses 1:39
What glass barriers???
ADSENSE HERE
What glass barriers???