Jul 24, 20214 min read

10 of the Biggest Life Lessons I Have Learned so Far

Updated: Apr 29

Woman sitting on cliff top overlooking the ocean with blog title

Life is full of lessons, Life is just one big classroom; we are all being taught every moment of every day.

If we don’t pay attention, we miss the lesson and life finds a way of repeating it for us.

Sometimes the lesson plan stays the same and we end up feeling as though we are living our very own ground hog day.

Other times the lesson is disguised with different situations and different people involved.

Either way the lesson continues to be part of our lives until the penny drops and we learn whatever it is we needed to learn.

Below are ten of the biggest life lessons I have learned so far

1. Meditation works.

I had read about how powerful meditation was, it’s not that i didn’t believe it, it’s just to experience it, to feel the difference it makes to your wellbeing, both physical and mental..................

2. Yoga helps with a lot more than flexibility and balance.

Yoga, much like meditation works on both the mind and the body. I knew about the body bit, but the effect it has on the mind was a great insight for me. I feel not just physically stronger and freer but it has the same effect on my mental well being too. I (insert heart) Yoga.

3. I can’t change people, but I can change how I react to them.

It’s hard enough to make changes to ourselves, to change habits, to improve our mindset. It’s impossible to do any of that to or for anyone else. People can change but it has to be their choice, it has to be their effort and it has to be for their reasons.

If someone is acting in a way I think is not right or doing something I think is wrong, my only choice is to change my reaction to them. And if I cannot accept them as they are then it’s time to move on.

4. I always have a choice.

So many times in my life I have felt stuck, felt I have no control, trapped. But in reality it was just my mindset that kept me trapped. Once I realised this, I made changes, changes that were huge, life-changing changes. I was so scared, but the idea of staying in the life I was living was far more scary than the unknown. If only I had known that earlier.

5. The difference between who I am and who I want to be is simply... what I do.

My habits create my life. My behaviour is made up of habits. I stick with what I know and then complain that nothing changes. The habits I have formed over the years stay with me unless I make a conscious effort to make changes. Habits are just behaviour and behaviour can be changed.

What habits are keeping you stuck? What habits would you like to create?

It may not be that easy, but it is that simple.

6. I am capable of a lot more than I think I am.

We never really know what we are capable of until we either push ourselves or are pushed. In a sink or swim situation, most of us soon find ourselves swimming even if we have to put on our water wings to do so.

7. To take more notice of what people do than what they say they do.

People say a lot of things. Some people put their money where their mouth is and live up to what they say they will do. But there are many who talk a good talk but their actions leave little to be desired. Pay attention to what people do more than what they say.

8. Life is too short and too precious to waste it with people who want to make me feel bad about myself.

If someone puts me down and makes me feel bad about myself and I tell them but they do it again and again, they have no place in my life, It is better to be alone than with people who have to put others down to make them feel better about themselves.

Send your life with people who lift you up, make you laugh and make you feel loved.

9. Everybody is the way they are for a reason, we are all a product of our environment but that does not excuse bad behaviour. We all have a choice.

Everybody is a unique combination of their upbringing, their environment, the people around them and their circumstance. None of know what others have been through. Some people become compassionate and empathetic if they have faced adversity, some become bitter and angry and take it out on all that come into contact with, others find a victim or victims to play mind games with. Whilst if you knew their story you could understand how they ended up like that, it doesn’t justify their behaviour. Behaviour is a choice, and their may be reasons, but there is never an excuse.

10. Just because that’s how it’s always been done, does not mean that’s how it should always be done. Things can change. We can make things change.

There are few things in life, if any that cannot be improved in some way. Without new ways of doing things or looking at things there is no growth. Change brings on the unknown and the unexpected which can scare people and make them resist change but that doesn’t mean that the old way is the best or only way. Don’t be afraid to change things, as long as it’s for the better.