5 Ways to Overcome Difficult Seasons in Life
Life isn’t perfect. Some seasons are full of light and happiness; other seasons are heavy and feel too hard to bear. There are times when just getting out of bed feels too much, like the whole world is depending on you and you aren’t strong enough to carry it all.
We all face these seasons of heaviness and difficulty in life, but we don’t have to let them consume us and keep us in defeat. Yes, life is hard, but it’s also beautiful, joyful and full of possibilities. By focusing on these five small, but meaningful practices, you’ll be able to overcome the darkness of the difficult seasons of life, and be refined by the fire in the process.
1. Surround Yourself with Light
When you’re going through a difficult season in life, it’s essential to surround yourself by people and things that make you feel light and uplifted. Release the things that are heavy and draining. Be ruthless and protect yourself during the battle so that you can focus your energy on standing firm in the Lord.
Unfollow social media accounts that fill your feed with negativity and dread. Take a break from meeting up with friends and family members that drain your energy, even if it means cancelling plans and putting yourself first. This isn’t out of selfishness, but out of self-love. Declutter things in your home that are taking up valuable time and energy.
Create a mix of your favourite music, mine is filled with uplifting and powerful worship songs, and let it play in the background while you do your daily tasks. Use LED or soy candles and soft lighting to bring warmth to your spaces. Open the curtains and windows and let the light in. Nourish your body with food filled with nutrients to support your mental health. Consume content that is positive and encouraging and turn off the news. You don’t need to keep up with current events when it’s a struggle just to get through the day. Make plans with people that fill you with joy and ask them to surround you with their prayers and support. Your flesh will tell you to isolate yourself, doom scroll, fear what’s happening in the world and keep the curtains closed to protect yourself, but God has not given us a spirit of fear! We have love, power and a sound mind in Christ! Don’t let the enemy drown your hope in the heaviness of difficult seasons, let the Joy of the Lord strengthen you and surround yourself with things and people that bring you light and love. You will get through this.
2. You Aren’t Alone
As a child of the Living God, you are never walking through this life alone. When it feels like your friends aren’t there for you, Jesus is your friend, always waiting with a listening ear. When it feels like you’ve been left behind by family, The Holy Spirit is your Comforter, ready to hold you safely in His arms. God will never leave you, nor forsake you. Even in your darkest moments, He is still with you.
A lot of us feel like we need to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders; like it’s our responsibility to solve every problem and carry every person’s struggles, but the weight was never ours to carry. God is waiting with open arms, ready to take the heaviness from you and give you His love and light, in return. Give your worries and burdens to your Heavenly Father, who cares so deeply for you. When you walk through the fires of life, you will not be burned, because He is protecting you and carrying you through it all.
Lean on God when life feels too much. Pray to Him and ask Him to give you the strength and grace you need, just to make it through the day. Do this as you lay in bed every morning, before the responsibilities of life even have a chance to overwhelm you. He will give you your daily bread and He will carry you, day by day, until your breakthrough comes and life feels light and joyful again.
3. Feel Your Feelings
A lot of us power through difficult seasons using work, socialising or family commitments to avoid sitting in our feelings. Healing requires you to feel your feelings and to truly embrace them. This is confronting and very uncomfortable for most of us, but to truly overcome the hard seasons, it must be done.
True healing comes from acknowledging our emotions, crying when we need to, soothing the anxiety and getting anger and frustration out in healthy ways. (A boxing class is great for this!) When you can sit in your emotions and accept that you feel the way you feel, and know that it’s okay to not be okay, you will truly start to heal from the pain of the hard season you’re in.
You can’t outrun emotions; they come out in unhealthy behaviours if you don’t learn how to deal with them properly. Feeling your feelings and giving yourself space and grace to go through the process, will allow you to overcome and let go of seasons of heaviness, without trauma following you into your future.
4. Movement is Medicine
Moving your body is a really underrated hack to getting through hard seasons. All we want to do on a bad day is curl up on the sofa with a soft blanket and binge watch Netflix, but what your body, mind and soul actually need is movement. Finding one small way to move your body everyday will give you the mental stamina to overcome the storms and challenges of life. Move your body in a way that makes you happy. This isn’t for weight loss or perfection, this is movement that brings just a little spark of light in dark times.
If you can’t face going to the gym, just a short 15-minute home workout will boost your serotonin levels and make your day more bearable. There are loads of free workout videos on YouTube, The Body Coach TV is great for hard days, because Joe Wicks is always so happy and encouraging.
One of my favourite ways of getting in some movement is a relaxing walk around our neighbourhood ponds and local woodlands. The fresh air, birdsong and blooming trees always have a way of making me feel better. Walking is known to lower stress, promote happy hormones and it’s so good for your heart, pun intended. When you build in daily, mood-boosting movement for your body, your mind becomes stronger, and, day by day, the tough seasons of life become easier to overcome.
5. One Little Thing
One of the most common things you’ll hear when you go through a hard time is “Focus on the good things you have in your life.”, which is the way we all should view life, but when you’re facing a season of lack, struggle or darkness, the last thing you want to do is force yourself to think about the things you’re grateful for.
I recently watched a video on YouTube from Better Together, called How to Change Your Mindset and Speak Life, where Holly Wagner, co-founder of Oasis Church, was describing a time when she was really facing a dark season in her life. She felt like she really had nothing to be grateful for and she was becoming angry and bitter. Her husband was getting worried about her, and so one day, he brought home a jar, and told her that he doesn’t care what she writes down, but every single day, she needs to write down one thing that she is grateful for, just one thing, and put it in the jar, until the jar was full. She was shocked and upset that he asked her to do this, but she ended up doing it. For a long time, all she could think of to write down was “coffee”. I think we can all relate to this! After a while though, something started changing in her heart. She started adding things to her list of gratitude and noticed that there were so many blessings in her life that she wasn’t able to see in the darkness. Eventually the dark season passed and she was uplifted and joyful again.
I think this is something we all need to do in times of heaviness. Choose one thing that you’re thankful for every day. Just one little thing. Little by little and day by day, the heaviness will lift and you’ll be left with a jar, and a heart, full of gratitude.
We all face seasons of struggle and pain at one stage or another in life and unexpected situations come to us all, but through it all, God works all things for our good. If we hold His hand and lean on Him as we walk through the fire, He will be faithful and we will be refined and made stronger. He will give you beauty for ashes through your testimony. We have victory over every trial we will ever face, because Jesus has already won the victory for us.
John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Overcoming difficult seasons in life is possible. Don’t let the enemy lie to you. You are not stuck in your pain, grief or lack. God will break the chains of your hard seasons and give you victory. Lean on Jesus, surround yourself with light and joy, feel your feelings, move your body and find gratitude for one little thing each day. If you’re in a tough season right now, build these 5 impactful practices into your life and you will receive beauty for all the ashes you are facing. Through Jesus you will have your breakthrough!
