I am inspired by John Maxwell’s challenge of thinking about our experiences as meaningful life lessons. Maxwell says that “there is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveller.” We generally see adversity and difficulty as negative. Most of us fail to see the benefits and blessings when faced with challenges. It is not easy to think of blessings when we are faced with difficulty.
When I had someone call me and threaten my life, I can tell you that I did not see any benefits at first. It was pretty scary! I realized eventually that it was just a scam but it certainly did not feel beneficial. After sharing my experience with a colleague, he shared his similar experience and I immediately felt empathy for him and his family. I guess I wouldn’t have been able to empathize the same way unless I had that experience.
I also learned to be much more careful with social media than before. I did a great deal of breathing meditation during that scam and realized that the police do care and respond quickly to death threats. This made me feel very grateful and protected.
Sometimes we fail to realize how fortunate we are in a country like Canada. We are protected and generally safe physically. Too many other countries don’t provide the same safety and protection. This is another reminder of how grateful I need to be to be a Canadian.
So, the benefits of this scary experience are to be grateful, to be careful of social media, and to have empathy for others who have been threatened before.