You may have noticed the red lotus symbol I use here on this website and elsewhere.
This symbol is important to me and I’d like to share why. I often provide individual and couples counseling to those experiencing a major transition in life.
And the red lotus is an important symbol when contemplating transition – it symbolizes what transition can be like. A lotus flower only grows in the murkiest, darkest, and muddiest of waters. And it can’t grow anywhere else.
But when it blooms, it remains untouched by this dirt – beautiful, radiant, and glowing.
Just as the roots remain in this water, we cannot escape our past hurts and longings.
But we can learn to blossom. We can learn to make meaning and purpose where none existed before. It’s not that we forget or simply “move on” as so many in our culture like to say.
It’s that instead of denying our own dirty water, our past mistakes, painful things we ourselves have done and others have done to us, we understand its presence. And we use it. We give it purpose and meaning so that we can have, indeed “own,” moments of happiness, sunshine, radiance, and beauty.
We can also learn to surrender.
Just as the lotus flower can’t spend all day in bloom, neither can we expect to be happy and successful all the time.
But we can learn to cherish those moments when they arrive and tolerate life when they leave. Psychologists call this capacity “resilience” – and it can be incredibly helpful to work on in your own life.
Despite pain and struggle, we really can laugh, enjoy life, be successful (whatever success might mean for you) and we can love ourselves and others.
I hope this metaphor is helpful to you as well. I would love to hear your own stories of resilience. If you think we may be a good fit, please give me a call.
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