Flex Your Soul Muscles

I came across a thought that I saw on a greeting card: "All times are good times. Difficult times help us grow. Happy times help us enjoy." How true that is. So often we greet the challenges with a heavy heart, plodding through them, without an end in our sight. Then, we come through the other side and look back, with our 20-20 hindsight, realizing how far we have come, and how much we have grown in the process. But, what if we just looked at the difficult times in a different way? If we looked at these moments in our lives as a chance to flex our "soul" muscles? That it doesn't matter how long it takes us, we are growing all along the way. I go to a gym to flex my physical muscles and use them so that I stay in shape and keep the juices flowing. The same goes for our mental muscles/capacity; we keep our brains active by staying engaged in life. Why not approach keeping our soul capacity strong by looking at how we view those challenges and changing our behavior. Embrace those moments when they seem insurmountable by reaching out to others, praying, eating well, sleeping enough, and being in nature to find the comfort we need as we meet those difficult times. The Psalms offer many opportunities to pray and ask for HaShem's help; all the better done under a tree, listening to the birds as they carry our prayers upwards.
Lighten your heart by shedding your burden, a little at a time.