Why is life so difficult and heavy?

That is this thing about life: it's not easy. At some point in all of our lives, we recognize that life is not always fair. Life often times has a way of knocking the wind out of us, and it is easy to feel hopeless. Life also has a way of being beautiful; of showing us things about ourselves, helping us grow and do better. We are the ones who get better. Sometimes we think about life in black and white: it is either good or it is bad. The reality is there is a lot of grey within the black and white, and a lot of life is spent in the grey. What do I mean by this? For example, if you take any given day, there are high moments to that day, there are low moments to that day, and there are moments that are in between throughout the day. While it is true that some days are inherently more bad than others (like losing a loved one) or filled with more good than others (achieving a huge milestone in life), most of our days are not all good or all bad. This is also true for life. 

The challenge for all of us is recognizing what it is we have control over when looking at how we manage through the rough times and the good times. When we are able to recognize what is within our control, it allows us to feel as though we have some control over our lives, which in turn leads to us feel empowered to make decisions in our lives that can lead to positive change. It is about learning new skills to help manage and cope through  the challenging times, developing the ability to embrace and truly enjoy the good times, and allowing yourself grace and patience for the rest of the in between. These skills are not always natural skills, but they are vital skills to learn to gain better control over yourself, your thoughts and your emotions. 

We only know what we know in any given situation, and when we know better, we do better. This in turn leads us to doing better in our own lives and gives us the ability to recognize that when we have a bad day, it is just a bad day and not a bad life. It allows us to breathe through the challenging times, embrace the good times, and find peace and calm in all the times in between.