Facing Adversity with mindfulness
The Carrots, Eggs and Coffee Story:
I met with a college athlete last week who was struggling with balancing the demands of her sport, academics, and missing home. The level of confidence she once had was disappearing. She disliked most of her classes with the exception of one particular class. The professor of the class took her aside one day and asked her if everything was alright. This student-athlete shared her troubles with the professor and he listened intently. Then he told her a story about carrots, eggs and coffee.
If you fill three pots of water and placed them on a high flame and bring them to a boil. Once the water in the pots was boiling, place in one pot the carrots, in the second is eggs, in the third is coffee grounds. Watch the pots boil and after about twenty minutes, turn off the burners. Fish out the carrots and place them in a bowl. Pour the eggs out and place them in another bowl. What is in the third pot? Coffee.
What is the moral of this strange story?
Each object placed in the boiling pot faced adversity, but each had reacted differently. The carrots went in strong and came out soft and weak. The eggs went in fragile and came out hardened. The coffee grounds were different: they changed the water. We can always choose how we face adversity. Mindfulness can assist in looking adversity directly in the eye and choosing to be the coffee. Change your surroundings by managing your thoughts. It takes awareness, practice and patience. You can do it.
Which one are you-the carrot, the egg or the coffee?
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