3 Gifts of Adversity I Received After Going to Federal Prison

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.”

Kenji Miyazawa

Something happened you wish hadn’t.

Life didn’t go according to plan. You’re lost, you’re alone, and you don’t know what the hell to do.

It’s easy to sit and wallow in all the bad that happened. It’s easy to stay in the burnt ashes of what was and is no more. It’s easy to be the victim.

It takes courage to step out of your old life and into a new one. To accept responsibility and seize agency over your life.

It’s unknown, and the unknown is scary.

The brain seeks comfort and runs from pain.

It’s what it’s designed to do. It’s a survival tool and will do what it feels is necessary to keep you alive.

You’re replaying things over and over, you’re punishing yourself,

“I’m so stupid…”

“Why didn’t I….?”

You feel like you’re doing something about it because you’re always thinking about it. It feels like progress because it is a perpetual loop.

Rumination isn’t progress. It’s a prison.