Today’s blog is part of Mary Sabo’s Blog Tour called Misfortune into Opportunity. Read ALL of the wonderful entries of Mary’s tour here and enter to win awesome prizes like an Amazon Gift Card, health/wellness consultations, signed books by the authors and more!

All of us struggle at times.

Some more, some less. But not a single person in this world goes through life unscathed.

My struggles revolved around money, my body and food.

They’re interconnected, all the same.

I used to believe I’m not good enough, don’t have enough or am too much. I believed that by being thin, having more money and perfecting my body, I’d heal my soul, connect with myself and finally become whole. Yet the more I focused on “fixing” my body and increasing my income, the unhappier I was. The more I obsessed about my struggles, the less I had what I actually wanted.

I was terrified of never being able to support myself. I was terrified of losing my thin body. I was terrified of food. What did I do? I fled into a marriage, body image struggles and a fear of life. Nothing got better but everything got worse.

Society tells you that if only you persist, if only you continue to work hard, you will succeed. So, I did. I worked my butt of in my business. I exercised for up to 4 hours a day. I stopped eating most foods and I persisted. One day, I thought, I’ll be happy if only I continue on this path.

I used all my willpower, all my strength, all my drive, but nothing happened, nothing changed.

Until, one day, I woke up and knew I needed to change something. I needed to let go because I was desperately unhappy, in deep inner turmoil.

Slowly, gently, I began to move into different ways of thinking, of being, of living and slowly, gently, I began to come alive again, feel again, be myself again.

My body stopped being my worst enemy. My life stopped revolving around calories, the scale and exercise. My self-worth stopped relying on the money I didn’t make.

During the time of transformtion, I didn’t just break free, but something else happened: I began to see the value in my life-long struggles. I began to see the messages that my body-hatred had in store for me. I began to see the inspiration that my stressful relationship with money could provide. I began to see that all of my life, I simply ran away from things I needed to learn. I began to see that nothing I had lived through was in vain.

Over the years, I’ve made peace with my past. I’ve used what I’ve learned to become the person I am today and I am proud of the strong, loving, kind and generous woman I’ve become. I’ve truly found my opportunity in my misfortunes of the past and I’m better off for having been through what I’ve been through.

My life wouldn’t be as amazing as it is now if I hadn’t learned to stand on my own two feet, to love my own beautiful body and to take care of it in order to create the life I’ve now created. Had I never faced my struggles, I simply wouldn’t be me.

Here’s how you can find your fortune in misfortune too:

1. Find the wisdom in your struggles

Every struggle you ever face, whether it’s a fear of fat, bankruptcy, divorce or an obsession with your diet has some nugget of wisdom to share with you. Most of these struggles deliver a wealth of information crucial for your happiness, your life and your relationships.

Instead of fighting with whatever is going on, embrace it, look at it with a loving heart and an open mind and listen closely to the lesson that the universe is sending you. Sometimes, your lessons are obvious like needing more sleep when you’re chronically tired. But other times, they’re more hidden and need some investigation. Don’t shy away from going there, asking deep questions and finding what you really need right now. You’ll often be surprised at what you uncover.

2. Release

If you hold on to your victim story of being so broken because you’ve had to deal with disordered eating for decades, of feeling so sorry for yourself because your marriage broke apart, of demanding pity because nobody seems to like you, you’ll never find peace and the opportunity in your misfortune. Instead of dwelling in the past and in your story, learn from it and then let it go.

The past is in the past. You can’t change it. What you’ve gone through hurt and it might have been unjust, but it happened and now it’s over. It’s time to move on.

3. Seek joy

I used to live for the tomorrows and thought that once I lost X pounds, once I made X dollars a month, I’d allow myself to be happy and enjoy life. Turns out, I had it all wrong. There is no time other than the HERE and NOW. Living for tomorrow just doesn’t work. First, we don’t know if we’ll even have a tomorrow and second, chances are there’ll be another challenge that we want to deal with, so we wouldn’t allow ourselves to enjoy the day anyway.

Begin to seek joy today. Do something that excites you, that makes your heart beat a little bit faster now. Pick up that hobby that you’ve wanted to do for so long. Learn to dance salsa, shoot beautiful photos or ride a horse. Don’t put your life off until you can’t live it anymore but instead add some pleasure to your every day – even and especially when you’re going through a dark time. {Click to Tweet}

If you add these three ingredients to your life, you’ll soon see the huge opportunity that is hidden in your current misfortune.