greatest challenges

[Sephiroth]

what was one of ur greatest challenges in life that u had to over come to get to where u are now? and y was it a challenge to u?

[Sephiroth]

my greatest challenge was learning swordmenship with my katana and my nodachi. it was a challege to me because i never used a training sword while training with others. we used the real thing so there was always the chance that anyone of us could lose a finger or worse even die will train because of the intensity of it all.

ps and it scares the crap out of u wen some guy or even a chick (yes a girl) runing at u with a super sharpend sword in their hand.

[Emerald Sky]

Hmmm... I had to overcome being an active alcoholic. Through the help of the All, I've been sober for over four years. It's through the program of AA that I was able to open my mind to other religious beliefs and understandings which eventually allowed me to find my way to Paganism... and to MysticWicks... now I just have to work on my addiction to MW! :D LOL!

[mol]

Originally posted by Emerald Sky
Hmmm... I had to overcome being an active alcoholic. Through the help of the All, I've been sober for over four years. It's through the program of AA that I was able to open my mind to other religious beliefs and understandings which eventually allowed me to find my way to Paganism... and to MysticWicks... now I just have to work on my addiction to MW! :D LOL!

By the way...addiction to Mysticwicks in no way causes any kind of diseases that we know of...

Just had to put that disclaimer in there.

Now, back to the topic.

[MammaStar]

I think my greastest challenge, was getting back on my feet and raising my son after he was born. I wasn't with his dad. I had a crap job. Even bigger of a loser of a boyfriend. I felt like I was in the pit of despair and had no way out. Then, my folks held out their hand and gave me a place to live. I found a decent job. Paid back all the money I owed, got a decent place for me & my son to live and now we're doing all right. He's 9 and out of his 9 years of live, I'm glad to say that the last two, things have picked up and we're both doing really well.

[Dellit Tandannon]

my greatest challenge as of yet was my first astral projection. i meditated deeply for hours every night for five months before i was able to truely focus my energy to that extent.

[Elaine]

my greatest challenge was my first marriage....when you get married at 18 divorced at 19 and remarried to someone different at 20 it is deffinately a challenge!! My stupid mistake cost me thousands of dollars and my relationship with my family was hurt for some time! It has left me with seriously bad credit and some very embarrassing memories!! I'm very glad to say that my second husband was the right choice to make:) and that I never would have made it through all of this without him...yeah we have our rough times as everyone does, but he's always been there to help me through all of this!! My x is now completely out of my life....and my husband and i just celebrated our 2 year anniversary!!

What does not kill you only makes you stronger!!!

[Lucidia]

i'd say... i had three major challanges in life...

the first was surviving an abusive (and i mean ABUSIVE.. on all levels.... physically/sexually/emotionally/mentally) relationship... and i was only 13 to boot. I am still recovering.. it took years of talking about it and learning to overcome a lot of the trauma it caused... but i'm pretty stable (romance wise) now that i've learned to get past most of it.

the second was my brief skirmish with a cult (not everyone considers jehovah's witnesses a cult, but most ex-jws that were actually baptised - and by that action, legally ordained ministers - will tell you it's rather cult like), which tore apart 7 years of spiritual evolution and brought me back to the "stone age" for a little while.. but after 2 1/2 years, i got out.. and got back to following my heart.... rather than unhealthy fear.

and the third was right around the time i started breaking away from being a jehovah's witness... and that was when i nearly became anorexic. I still suffer from this really scary eating disorder, and it took years of convincing myself that i'm not too fat and that food is not a bad thing and so many people helping me along the way... and now i'm quite fine... and i've broken a lot of my dangerous eating habits (though now, i must admit, i eat too much!).

i suppose that's it for that one... heh.

[Rævyn Cigány]

I think my greatest challenge in my life was keeping my family together when we were first starting out as a family. My then-boyfriend and I had split up when I was four and a half months pregnant with our son because of conflicts with his mother (she HATED me!). We were separated for nearly 18 months and the whole time, no matter the circumstances (things got pretty ugly for awhile), I always held out hope that he and I would reunite. Four days after my son's first birthday, my now-husband packed us up and moved us across the province back to the town where he lived (and I lived for 6 years before moving back to my parents'). Through rude comments and complete and utter torment, Jim and I stayed together, were married, had two more children and managed to eliminate every reason his mother had for objecting to our being together....I thank the Goddess every day for the strength She gave me to overcome...even though, at that time, I didn't even know Her... :)

Brightest Blessings,

Rae )0(

[Emerald Sky]

Wow, this has been a great thread so far. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for your honesty! It's great to see people opening up and sharing their lowest points in life. I pray for peace for all of us who have been hurt.

[Faery-Wings]

Woo hoo Emerald Sky! Good for you!!!:) And Lucida, I have battled eating disorders/poor body image all my life too.

I have two low points, the first was a bad experience I had in my freshman year of college that unfortunately colored most of my actions, thoughts and beliefs. My self esteem was waaay low and I made a lot of bad calls. I drank too much, became promiscuous, basically became a mess. I got mixed up with the wrong people... you know the deal :) I got through that after I dropped out of college, transfered to a new school and met the guy whom I married.
The other one was after my second child was born. I ended up with postpartum depression, where I became depressed, suicidal, and suffered from severe anxiety attacks. I hated my husband, hated my kids and I honestly do not remember much of my kids' lives at that time. Like I see pictures of them and I don't know where or why it was taken. Or when I was getting ready for a garage sale, I was putting clothes away that I don't remember her ever wearing. It is really hard still coming to terms that i lost much of her first year and that my 2 yo old son had to feed himself cheese and crackers most nights for dinner b/c I was not capable of cooking. One of the things that got me through this, other than meds and therapy, was lobbying for better ppd eduacation. I started a letter writing campaign with several other moms with ppd where we wrote letter drs, midwives, local and state govt, campaigning for obstetricians to be more aware of ppd and have it as part of their training. I don't know if it was our efforts but NJ had a "law" (can't think of the word that use use before it is a law-Oh a bill?) for just that.

Anyway, I'm all better now :D

Chris, a much stronger person b/c of all that

[Emerald Sky]

Wow Chris! I commend you for taking the steps to educate others about ppd. I've battled depression my whole life, but no doubt the absolute worst period was after the birth of my first daughter. Like you, I hardly remember much of it. My husband will mention something and I'll be like, "Huh??? I don't remember that." :( Thankfully, for my second pregnancy I was able to stay on my medication so everything was okay.

[Semele]

Thank you for this thread. It is great to hear how you have all overcome such hard times. The hardest thing I can think of was nursing school. I had to deal with the shock of carrying a C average when I went into the program with a 4.0. Not as traumatic as some of the other stories here, but definately my roughest time. Graduation was clouded due to the many number of my friends that didn't make the final cut.

I commend you all for your success!