11:11 WTF=What's This For?

Repurpose Life's Frustrating Mysteries

What I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day. ~ Phyllis Diller

Things will go sideways this holiday season. No matter how carefully you’ve planned, no matter how good your intentions, no matter how festive you may feel, sooner or later, something so perplexing, so offensive or so totally off the chain will occur that it will make you want to go, WTF?

Stop regarding unpleasant or unexpected things as interruptions of real life. Interruptions ARE real life. ~C.S. Lewis

When the utterly unexpected occurs, pause long enough to wonder how you can repurpose a frustrating mystery for your benefit instead of allowing it to steal your peace.

Since feelings of disappointment arise when your expectations are not met, you’ll experience fewer WTF moments when you remain open to the possibility that something may end up unlike what you expected, but it can be even better that way. By relaxing your grip on expectations, you automatically become less emotionally reactive when things don’t go as planned; when you’re calm, you can see possibilities where others who are freaking out see only evidence of catastrophe.

You may never get resolution to situations that defy logic, but if you reframe frustrating events by asking, What’s This For? it will be much easier to expect the unexpected and see the silver lining in it.

It’s easy to get provoked into an unproductive emotional reaction, especially during the holiday season. But when you react to something you observe by taking offense, getting frustrated or flying off the handle, you shut down the solution-oriented part of your brain. When you’re emotionally fired up, excitatory hormones in the amygdala unleash the fight, flight, freeze or fawn response and shut down your neocortex, the seat of the higher mind. Unfortunately, a powerful emotional cascade can literally overtake your brain and block access to the rational mind.

Using your imagination to rehearse negativity amplifies it. By allowing your brain to marinate in primitive emotional states, you make unproductive or crude reactions more likely. Fear, anxiety and rage not only keep you swirling in a negative feedback loop from which it is tough to escape, but those feelings are so all consuming that they block you from accessing your love, wisdom and intuition.

You can interrupt this self-defeating cycle of misery with the power of the pause and a choice to believe that everything that arises is for your highest good, no matter how it appears at first glance. By assuming that life is supporting you and that everything ultimately works out for you, you can reject the misery mindset that makes you ask, Why me? instead of What’s this for?

It’s strange but true, that the most important turning points in life come at the most unexpected time and in the most unexpected ways. ~Napoleon Hill

Practice reframing every situation you face as for you, not against you. By looking for opportunities instead of offenses, you will gradually become more creative, resilient and able to seize the day. By asking yourself what you can learn from a confounding conundrum, you instantly pivot to a learning paradigm.

Too sick to party? Maybe it’s for you to embrace radical self care.

Stuck in traffic? Maybe it’s for your protection as you missed a potential crash.

Burned the turkey? Maybe it’s for you to discover just how much you’re loved, even when you mess up.

Spiritual Practice: Next time you’re gobsmacked, flustered or royally ticked off, flip the script. Instead of reacting with WTF? get curious. Ask yourself, What’s This For? How is this serving my growth? What can I learn from this?

Remember that everything that happens in your life is an opportunity to learn something valuable while becoming more loving, wise and aware. No matter how frustrating a situation may appear at first glance, there’s always an opportunity to be discovered. Instead of taking offense at life’s frustrating mysteries, repurpose them. Find opportunities for benefit where others see only catastrophe. When you trust that everything ultimately works out for you, even if it’s not what you planned, you can go with the flow and take life’s WTF moment in stride.

Nobody says you must laugh, but a sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the day. ~ Ann Landers

Thanks to Mary Mc Laughlin for this enlightening reframe. Subscribe to her Substack to gain insight on the Art of Freedom.