Learning from every situation? What kind of learning?

"You can grow and learn from anything that happens to you."

My tendency has been to take this statement and apply it literally, like learning a subject at school, a primarily cognitive exercise of rehearsing and making 'better' decisions in the long run.

This has resulted in a whole lot of inner policing with ever tighter constrictions and distress.

So why do I still feel the statement to be true?

Knowing that there is something to be gained even in grim situations has been so rewarding when the learning is about expanding my range of comfort and ease. Each time life brings something that appears insurmountable or like I have mis-stepped if I soften a little into being with that state, I learn to take ever more courageous steps into my own life, my being and become unapologetically me.

Rewiring the nervous system happens then, when distress is felt and ease is invited. Learning not by trying to change the past or making sure nothing like it happens again, but by registering that I am safe and well despite it all, as and when it happens - or as soon afterwards.

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