If you’re going through one of life’s inevitable hard times, I mean, life is a series of seasons and you’re going to have times at the top of the mountain and you’re going to have times in the valley. I’ve gone through times you could not imagine. I’ve gone through times where I have been attacked, where people have tried to take me down, where someone very close to me called it a horror story, like a Hollywood horror story. I have pivoted during those times and used them as much as I humanly could do so to open my heart, to teach me forgiveness, to teach me faith, to teach me love, to understand that my enemies, and I don’t have any enemies, but those people who tried to hurt me and destroy me were also helping me become a deeper, stronger, faster, human being who is even more of service to you.
It makes me think of that wonderful Mexican proverb, “They tried to bury me. They didn’t
understand we were seeds.” During my times in the darkness where I was lost and hurting, where people were trying to destroy me, one of the things that saved me was my journal. Some days I would write for hours and I would process the pain and I would process the disappointment and I would write about my confusion. You see, here’s the key. Any great psychologist will tell you, and any great philosopher will tell you, if you do not feel through and release the pain and the disappointment and the anger towards forgiveness and freedom and love, you will repress and suppress those low-energy emotions.
If you do, you’ll be a toxic person. If you do, you’ll be bitter 10 years later. If you do, you will
never forgive. If you do, you’ll be carrying those people who tried to destroy with you through the rest of your life. You won’t be creative, you won’t be productive, you won’t be on fire, you won’t be a master of your craft because you’re stuck in the event that happened years ago. Journaling is a fantastic tool to move you through those difficult times, whether they last a week, whether they last five years, whether they last a decade. Hey, Nelson Mandela was in Robben Island for 27 years. You want to talk about a hero.