I’ve been reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and what caught my attention is the way he talks about challenging situations.
In particular, Tolle writes that “the best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life’s challenges when they come,” and then he adds, “Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious.”
He also notes that if you can’t be be present in normal circumstances, such as when you’re sitting alone in a room, taking a walk, or talking to someone, then you won’t be able to stay conscious when you are faced with difficult people or situations, with loss or a threat of loss. If you’re reading this because something has gone wrong in your life and you’re looking for ways to move forward, Eckhart Tolle offers a framework that consists of three powerful ways to overcome challenges in life.
1. Change the Situation
Every day, we face various challenges. Most of them can be unpleasant or downright intolerable. We all have different ways of dealing with them, but very often, we do nothing and repress our feelings. This builds up over time and causes stress.
Eckhart Tolle teaches us that the first thing we can do is try to change the situation. However, the action shouldn’t come from a place of negativity; it should come from a clear understanding of where we are and what choices we have at this moment:
If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.
2. Remove Yourself from the Situation
If you have tried to change the situation but nothing worked, you should consider the second option—removing yourself from the situation. For example, how often do you find yourself arguing with someone who’s clearly not going to change their mind?
When you notice this unconscious behavior, take a step back and reconsider your situation. Then, walk away if you feel that nothing you say or do will result in a positive outcome. Eckhart Tolle writes:
Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing. Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking.
3. Accept the Situation
Sometimes, we are trapped in a situation that we have absolutely no control over. That means we can’t do anything to change the situation or walk away from it.
It’s the point of complete surrender and acceptance of what is. But Eckhart Tolle warns that we shouldn’t confuse it with giving up. On the contrary, we accept this moment without complaining or judging. We allow our inner stillness to manifest fully and, by doing so, regain peace of mind:
If there is truly nothing that you can do to change your here and now, and you can’t remove yourself from the situation, then accept your here and now totally by dropping all inner resistance. … This is called surrender. Surrender is not weakness. There is great strength in it. Only a surrendered person has spiritual power. Through surrender, you will be free internally of the situation. You may then find that the situation changes without any effort on your part. In any case, you are free.
Complement these three powerful ways to overcome challenges in life from The Power of Now with our guided meditation on accessing the power of now.
I’m a freelance writer and mindfulness advocate behind this blog. What you see here is the combination of my three favorite things: reading, writing, and mindfulness. While you’re here, subscribe to my blog updates and gain access to free mindfulness resources for stress relief.
