Finding yourself face-first on the ground, spitting out gravel, tasting blood, maybe even missing a tooth—it’s not fun. Whether literally or figuratively, when life knocks you to your knees and then kicks you flat for good measure, you’ve got some choices to make.
Just like everyone alive, you’re probably going to have to pick yourself back up hundreds of times in your lifetime. There will be a few of those times when you’re not sure you can ever get back up—and there will even be a few times when you won’t know whether you even want to get back up.
You can read a first-aid manual to find out what needs to be done before you get back up, if you’re literally on the other side of road rash, but what about the figurative road rash? What if we had a first-aid manual for the soul? Would it say things like:
* If you’ve been knocked down and your heart is bleeding, you’ve got to assess the situation before you get back up.
* Do you need to stabilize any wounds first?
* Has your breath been knocked out of you? Are you in shock?
* Try not to panic; you don’t make good choices when you panic. Do you need a tourniquet for your wounded heart so you don’t bleed out?
* Lay there for a moment and breathe. Stay where you are until help arrives.
We get knocked down in all sorts of ways. It’s harder to see the internal injuries, isn’t it? The emotional ones, the gashes to your ego, the obliteration of beliefs, the devastating grief that comes from losses of all kinds. It’s life’s road rash.
What does it take to get back up?
Well, It takes a strikingly paradoxical combination of decisions, starting with asking yourself contrasting questions. When you’ve found yourself down, down, down, ask yourself these questions and see what comes up:
1. How can I show myself some gentle mercy here? 2. How can I push myself with strength I never thought possible? 3. What do I need to get away from? 4. What do I need to move toward? 5. What is too much here? 6. What is not enough here? 7. What knocked me down? 8. What will lift me back up? 9. Who am I now?
10. Who am I no longer?