Every painful step is an opportunity for you to learn patience, to learn tolerance, to learn endurance, to develop your faith, to lean on Me, to take the next step when the next step seems scary or lonely or empty or pointless.

It was then that Heather decided to take a somewhat experimental treatment route including the removal of her left lung, a rib, part of her diaphragm, and the lining of her heart and lung, and a chemotherapy cocktail wash of her chest and abdomen before being stitched up, followed by weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. But her life was about to change. Again …

Truly grateful people are the happiest amongst us. But what are the truly grateful thankful for? Well, for everything. Deeply happy people are even thankful for the trials and tragedies they pass through. Come see why you too can be grateful for the most challenging parts of life.

Our world is more connected than ever before with more ways of interacting with people than we know how to use well. Still, more and more of us find ourselves having to endure the lingering pain of loneliness. Loneliness, in fact, might be one of the biggest public health concerns, having been linked to increased mortality. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly important that we all learn how to deal with this painful feeling.

Fire burns. But it also cleans, purifies and refines. Heat melts. But out of that act of melted elements, steal is born and titanium is created. Pressure crushes. But it also produces diamonds.

When life gets dark and dreary, when the clouds of discontent swell and burst hard upon you with so much utter violence and ferocity you can scarcely take it anymore, let this simple poem inspire you through the toughest parts of your most challenging moments.

What do you do when life painfully crashes and burns and you find yourself scraped, bruised and buried under the weight of disaster and heartache? Do you run and hide? Or do you get up and fight back with all that’s inside of you?

Why do some people get crushed by difficulty, like so many boulders smashing the life and kindness right out of them? Why do they turn bitter and sour and hateful, while others rise to the occasion and come out better than before?

We all like green pastures and blue skies. We like downhill paths and couches with remote controls and tests where the teacher shouts out the answers as we take them. But we also know that such things don’t require much from us and that things that don’t require much tend to inspire, build and produce just as little.

Has life been one unbearable trial after another? Have you been beaten up and chewed up and spit out by a history that has left you maimed, scarred and bloodied? Have you ever considered that the very pain of life has fertilized the soil of your heart to yield fruit it could have produced in no other way?

I was recently sitting in the dentist’s chair thinking about my mouth. I don’t usually spend much time doing that, but that day, I was. And it dawned on me that personal development is really a lot like going to the dentist. Sounds strange, but not so much as you might think.

The Olympic Games are thrilling and compelling because they embody human excellence. They remind us of tha value of determination, dedication, will and stamina, refusing to allow life to get in the way of living it at its highest, pushing for what seems impossible, reaching amazing levels of human capacity. The passion and drive, hard work, sacrifice and blood sweat and tears in every step, every jump and even in every stumble, inspires us.

Not everyone’s depression is exactly the same. The causes of it, the way it’s felt and experienced and those steps and ideas that will ultimately help to lift the cloud of depression will be in some combination different for each person struggling with that challenge. So what I’ve done is to write a sort of suicide note … in reverse. There are reasons to choose to live that may be enough to spark that same desire in someone else. My hope is that it does.

Friendships are organic things. They live and grow and sometimes wilt and decay. They take something of us to maintain and nourish. Neglect can kill a relationship just as fast as it can a houseplant. At some level, we like to think there is nothing that could end a true friendship. But in the real world, there are many poisons that quickly sink deep into the bloodstream of even our most cherished relationships, infecting them with deadly toxins. Come in and see what those deadly toxins are!

Depression is a reaction to real problems. It signals the need to change something. While the need to change may be real and the call for action urgent, the overriding challenge is that depression often inspires inertia. But how you feel about your life, in most cases, can be changed, no matter how chronic the root of your depression is or seems. Come see how to begin that change today.

Depression is a thousand knives continually cutting at the fabric of the heart. It is the empty space of nothingness stretching mile after forsaken mile. It is darkness and despair and the endless echo of loneliness. It is oppressive and violent and vile. And yet there are ways of shining a light into that seemingly eternal darkness. There are ways to stop the deafening scream of emotional pain that shrieks in the inner ear of the depressed. Hope is available. Here’s the first step.

Our mottos become guide posts and verbal beacons along the road we travel. They are the street names on the map of life. They are the rhetorical equivalence of a compass to help us get our bearings and stay on course. They also reflect the heart of our hearts. They are terse statements of deep value, of what we aspire to be. They also help teach the fundamental ideas we want to pass on to others, especially our children.

Life has a way of hitting us upside the head at unexpected moments. Sometimes we stumble. Other times we fall and struggle to get back up again. Some people never do. Battered by circumstance, they become bitter and angry or depressed and despondent. An indescribable ache fills their hearts. A cloudy haze drapes their minds in indifference to anything but their own pain. Even their souls seem to become worn, ragged, ripped and broken. Others, however, seem to bounce back relatively quickly. There are reasons for that difference.

Do you struggle to make sense of life? Does happiness seem fleeting and distant? Is emotional pain eating you from the inside? Read my interview with Lori Deschene of Tiny Buddha and see why her site has such a huge following! Also, participate in a free hardcover giveaway of Lori’s new book, “Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions! Two books will be given out. Come see what all the buzz is about!

Pain is Life’s great master-teacher. It is the refiner’s fire, the heat that destroys the bacteria of life. It can burn off impurities, or it can consume and destroy. Our attitude, however, determines the outcome. But what do the trials and adversities of life teach us? What lessons are we to learn? What impurities does the heat of trial and tribulation burn off?