Have a Shitty Life? Make It Better Now.

It’s a weird journey that we are all on, isn’t it? I mean, we think we are growing, and we are getting somewhere, wherever that place might be to each person. And suddenly, a roadblock appears, or worse, something much harsher and our shitty life begins.

The few steps forward that we have taken are all taken away from us. We stumble backward. We try to crawl forwards, but nothing gives.

Stuck, we try this and that and the other. But again, nothing gives.

We are lost. Alone. Lonely. Sad. Stressed. Depressed.

And a hundred other emotions course through us, mostly bad ones.

We wonder if we are ever, ever, ever, going to be relieved of the burden under which we live. Are we ever going to get out from under this rock that is pressing down on us? Preventing us from breathing, and from living to our fullest?

Crying About Your Shitty Life?

We wake up every day crying about our shitty life. Weeping. Bawling. People avoid us. They think of us as that person who mopes around a lot.

“She just lost a boyfriend, or a job, or some money. Can’t she get over it already? For God’s sake.” They say in groups, huddled around, judging, and condemning us for feeling.

Why don’t they get it, we wonder? They have been through this before. Why don’t they commiserate with me?

But they know, as we know, as everybody knows, that this is just a temporary thing. It comes as fast as a flash flood. And it leaves as slowly as a peaceful brook.

They know it’s going to leave us soon. So, they are just waiting for that. But in our minds, we are thinking, “I’m never going to be over this. I am going to suffer this shitty life forever!!”

The Ebbs And Flows Of a Shitty Life

Luckily, that’s just our mind playing tricks on us. Because, one day, as it always done, the rock disappears. The hurt disappears.

We can breathe again. The pain inside of us for so long, so so long, dissipates. It doesn’t hurt as much as it hurt before.

We wonder, is this just a temporary respite, or am I healed? But we don’t know. We will never know.

Or it might be the peak we have been waiting for. All we can do is enjoy it. Enjoy it deeply and fully.

Because guess what? Another one, a much worse one, might be just around the corner. And if you want to be prepared for it, you need to kill it in the present.

Why does it matter? Why do we need to remember about the valleys? It helps us enjoy the peaks, so much more, much more. If we remember that this too is temporary, not only about the sadness, but about the joys we shall know true strength.

We are attached to nothing, and no one. Nothing can bring us down or up, because we know everything is temporary. Impermanent.

There for but a moment. A minutia.

My Shitty Life Story In Brief

Like everyone else on this planet, I went through one of the 3-strike-you-are-down counts just recently. About 3 years ago (seems like much longer now), in October 2014, I felt myself being punched hard in the gut and the face by the universe. I was down for the count and worse.

I had just come back from a road trip from Toronto to Panama City, with the love of my life (at the time). We had had some difficulties while we traveled, but I thought it was normal.

It was fine. Just fine.

Like an ostrich who had stuck her head in the sand, I pretended like everything was just fine and dandy.

We don’t have any troubles. We love each other. Forever.

We are going to be together forever.

Um, yeah.

We come back home, and I try, terribly, badly, horribly, unsuccessfully to salvage the relationship. I promise things that are not promisable. I do things that I know I am going to regret.

It’s all stupidness. Foolishness. Eagerness to keep things the same, even though we were both unhappy with the status quo.

I wish I had let go sooner, now that I think about it. But hindsight is always 20/20.

As the universe does, three horrible things happened to me at once.

The love of my life (at the time) broke up with me, with no sign of wanting to get back together with me, ever! They fired me from a job, that even though I hated it, I was still upset that I lost it. And my finances were spiralling out of control so I had to live with my parents at 30.

Absolutely sickening and devastating.

Boo-Hoo Shitty Life, But How Did You Get Out Of There?

Okay, you are probably thinking. Blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, sad stuff. Boo-hoo. Sob story revealed.

“But, Shikha, how did you turn your life around from absolute pandemonium: shit-faced on the ground, puking your guts out, and dying… to where you are right now?” This is what you are saying to me right now. At least, I hope you are.

Or you have switched off completely, and gone over to watch ‘Orange Is The New Black’ on Netflix, and I am here chatting with myself.

Anyway, so yes, all of that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter exactly what happened that made me go into the deep end, with no parachute, and no bathing suit (mixed metaphors, but I think you get it).

I was in this state of absolute horror and despair.

I felt lost. Mad. Insane. Upset. Suicidal. Desperate. And more.

I was done with this shit life.

I was actually truly done with this shit ME!

Old Shikha, We Are Done With This Shitty Life, Darling

The major turning point in anyone’s life, and you can read all autobiographies to see this turning point, comes when they have had more than freaking enough of this useless, lazy, selfish, and incompetent self.

Do you know which moment I am speaking about? Have you had this moment in your own life? If you are nodding, then I am glad you are here, reading this.

Because I think everyone who has done anything significant in their life goes through this epic life-changing, turning point, where they can’t bear the sight of their old, sniveling self anymore!

I would look at myself, and my life, and the devastation that I had wreaked upon my ambition, and my talent. I would look at myself in that state, and I would literally be disgusted with myself. “Shikha,” I would say to myself, as I talked to myself a lot in those days, having lost all of my friends.

“Shikha, what the hell are you doing here? You are freaking better than this!! You are so much better than this. Why are you living such a life? What is wrong with you? You are smarter than this. Stop it now! Just stop it.”

At that moment, I realized that not only was I not living up to my potential, but I was also so far away from my potential that I couldn’t even be called mediocre. Down in the dumps, in the toxic sewage dumps, was where I was.

The Turn Around On My Shitty Life After That Was Reasonably Easy

The thing I have realized is that once you go through this horrendously eye-opening, turnaround… Where you can’t even look at yourself, where you hate yourself for being the way you are, where you wonder how things got so bad.. This is a glorious thing!

It’s a glorious thing because after this point, the battle to get up on top is actually really easy.

I was so disgusted with myself, that everything, everything, everything that I did, all of my previous habits, and patterns were thrown out of the window right away by me.

I hated my old self. Despised her. Wanted to kill her. Abandon her. Dump her into a flour mill (what?).

I did not like her. I wanted to get rid of her. Throw her so far away from me, that I would never have to look at her miserable face again.

That’s what I did. I knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t want this old life of mine.

Okay, so I thought about what do I actually want?

• What do I want my ideal life to look like?
• What do I do in this ideal life?
• How do I sleep, wake up, walk, talk, work, and live?
• Where do I reside?
• What kind of friends do I have?
• What does my voice sound like?
• And so much more.

It was glorious to imagine, dream, and visualize my ideal life.

When You Aim For The Stars, You Fall Somewhere Near The Moon

I was aiming really high with my idealization and visualization techniques. I want it all, I told myself. The ideal life was where I was aiming. Everything perfectly as I wanted it.

When I was younger, my father would always repeat this adage to me. “Shikha,” he would say in a very fatherly way (love him to death), “if you aim for the stars, even if you end up somewhere near the moon, there’s still better than being on Earth with the masses.”

The essence of it was that I didn’t get to my perfect ideal life. I mean, not completely.

Even now, I am still tweaking my life all the time. As time moves on, I realize more and more stuff about myself, and as I learn more about myself, I tweak my life.

Tweaking, changing, upgrading, downgrading.

The significant thing is that I know even if I fall into a valley now, it will never be as bad as it was. Because now I have built up a repertoire of knowledge and tools that act as my arsenal.

I Am Forever Buffeted And Protected By My Daily Work On Myself

See, the thing is, readers, when I fell down in the past, it was because I got cocky. I stopped doing the important things.

Meditating, exercising, sleeping, eating healthy, spending time with friends and family, creative work, writing, and all of that juicy goodness. I didn’t do it. I skipped it.

Thinking I don’t need it, I focused on being a lazy-ass bum.

This is a power that I never want to give up. This power keeps me going over and over repeatedly.

No matter what else happens in my life, I know this. As long as I keep up with my daily habits, my routines, I know nothing can get me back down again, as before.

I am buffeted, protected, and coddled by these daily habits. What are they?

The powerful weapons in my arsenal include:

• Meditation (of course)
• Exercise
• Journaling
• Creative work
• TRE
• Pranayama
• 10k steps
• 4-5 liters of water
• Proper nutrition (gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free)

These daily activities keep me going. I am stronger than ever, better than ever, and forever improving and growing. Because of these daily habits.

Even if I do nothing else from now on, but these daily habits, I know I will forever be fine.

It Doesn’t Mean That The Valleys Have Disappeared, But I Have Changed

Okay, long title for this section. But you try cutting down a title like that.

Anyway, my life isn’t perfect. I don’t run from roses to sunshine to candy to lollipops. I have bad days.

Terrible days. Terrible months. Moments of despair and self-hate.

It’s all still exactly the same.

I haven’t switched away from all of that.

But, because of the power and strength that my routine gives me, I know that no matter what life throws at me, I can get excited about it, and bounce back like a fluffy souffle.

I haven’t seen it or done it all. But I don’t need to. That’s not what gives me this power. The power comes from knowing that I am stronger than ever, because I have my arsenal at my disposal.

If something happens, that throws off my equilibrium, then I just step back, laugh maniacally (as they do in those cartoon shows), and then go back to business, as if nothing happened.

Because it’s all about nothing. To me. Now.

It’s all temporary nonsense. Distractions. Fluff. All I want to do is get back to business, away from my shitty life.

Get back to my work. Stop trying to get me down! I am stronger than whatever you throw at me.

I know I can prevail over everything.

Feel The Power Of This Arsenal As Well – No More Shitty Life

Okay, so if I was doing this post, just to boast about my situation, then it would really suck. But I am not. I don’t need to boast. I know who I am.

It’s possible for you, too. To tell you that this arsenal is free, and at everyone’s disposal, anytime they decide they want to use it.

You can start meditating where you are, sitting or standing, for five minutes a day. No materials required. No training, or books, or knowledge, or money, or anything else required.

Just sit down and start. As I did.

You can start journaling right now. Or doing yoga. Or running for 15 minutes every morning.

Whatever it might be. These tools strengthen us, so we become too powerful for anything to overcome us. “Bad” things might happen, but they just dissipate like the mist as the sun gets stronger.

All of it is to tell you you can be stronger, too. Just start with one or two of these tools every morning. The prevailing one is meditation.

Just five minutes a day, consistently, over a long period, can change your entire paradigm.

Now, who doesn’t want that? Get rid of that shitty life now.