When you are busy planning your life, Life has its own unexpected surprises for you. Isn’t it? And then we are not prepared for the change, we resist.

We resist in various ways, possibly may be we are fearful, conditioned, prejudiced, or being conclusive about the new environment we are thrown into.

I call this environment as a DESERT, which is a metaphorical state of mind, where you feel absolutely uncomfortable, resisting and find it challenging in the new environment to survive and thrive. And your mind seems to be totally dried up like a cactus not able to think a thing how to overcome the challenge.

We humans perceive and process information differently, and therefore have different variations to deal with change. Some people find possibilities and inspiration when they are faced with change, while others see change as imprisonment.

For those people who need to think differently to free themselves from their psychological resistance, here are some self-reflective questions to ask self.
These wonderful possibility questions bloom from:

What would happen if….?
“I don’t give up” 
“I try”
“I succeed and thrive”

There you allow yourself to interrupt the pattern of your conditioned thinking process and liberate yourself to access the possibilities existing beyond your limiting beliefs.

This is exactly what a cactus does. They survive with a great deal of patience and resilience. Cactus just survives with very little water in a desert environment and thrive giving shelters too to other animals and insects.

Here are some great lessons CACTUS teach us to implement and experience the impact.

1. First, ACCEPT exactly like the CACTUS does: But how to practice acceptance? The solution is to recognize the very fact about the nature of your mind that you are resisting. The moment you observe your mind and realize this, you immediately discover the cause of why you are resisting.
   And then take a PAUSE, and absorb the shock with a little faith, a little faith takes you a long way to explore possibilities. Start looking at all the possibilities in the given situation
2. Grow anywhere and everywhere: When in adversity, we need to be resilient to the change and grow anywhere and everywhere like Cactus. Irrespective of the challenge, find opportunities and possibilities to survive, thrive, and produce. So note down all the doable possibilities and stretches that you can make to grow in the given situation
3. Holding Your Patience, Learn to Adapt: We should adapt to become flexible to respond differently as the roots and the leaves of the cactus does by holding enough amount of water as it knows that the water availability fluctuates. Responding as per the environment is the key to rise and shine.
4. Waxy Emotions: Wear the appropriate emotion in the adversity so that you sustain the change whatsoever the challenge might be with appropriate empathy. Just like the thick stem of Cactus has waxy coating which keeps the water safe preventing from evaporation. A thick, waxy coating keeps the water inside the cactus thereby preventing from evaporation.
5. Connect to your INNER STRENGTH: We must always allow our mind to think that we have the ability to change. Instead of being upset, you need to shift your energy from the short-term impact to long-term benefits. Remember it’s always these challenges which have made you stronger and resilient of who you are today.
6. Communicate for Support: Communicate, share with family, friends, peers to create the support system that you may need. It is always a privilege to be blessed if you have the support system around you. So talk for support and help if needed.
7. Take Accountability and Ownership: And finally it’s you who has to make the change that you wish to happen. No one else can do it for you. So plan tangible action steps, and start executing them. And in the process be flexible to change the strategy if needed too.

Remember, the fundamentals of life are never in the black or white, in fact it is in both the areas. Rise and fall, happiness and sorrow, day and night; this is how we have always experienced life: it’s always a series of incidents and stories, sometimes joy, sometimes painfully full of sadness. Well, this is how life is, isn’t it??

These curves in Life make us LEARN and GROW. The COMITMMENT must be is to make the best out of everything life throws at us.

Thinking rationally, we all know that most of life’s situations are never under our control. However, the responses are absolutely ours.  

“The best is yet to come.” And cactus knows about it. And so you must too allow yourself to BLOOM in the process.

So next time when your mind tricks you defining it as a challenge, in return you trick the mind reframing it as an opportunity to LEARN, GROW, and EVOLVE just like the CACTUS.

Keep Evolving in life…..