Sometimes You Have To Move On, Like Nothing Else, Like No One …

Moving on is not an option, it is an obligation.  An indisputable psychic tendon. The alloy of a luminous and resistant material that must coat our hearts to allow us to move forward, as if nothing is so important as to take away our hope, as if no one is so valuable as to take away the opportunity to be happy once again.

We have all experienced it at some time, we have all been stuck at a specific moment in our lives. When this happens, our universe is distorted, we are left upside down and out of tune, anchored in a strange, suffocating dimension. And we know it, we know very well that what remains still or clinging to something spoils and that like stagnant water, everything begins to smell bad. 

When we go through difficult and adverse times, there is a part of our brain that encourages us to keep going. It is the voice of logic, the one that aligns with what our closest people tell us by encouraging us and caring for us and trying to offer us the best support and the best words. However, there is another part of our brain resistant to change and completely attached to those painful events that have taken away the calm and above all, the sense of security that it had not long ago.

Letting go of something or someone, putting aside what identified us as a job or a friendship, implies that our whole being goes into a state of alarm. A complex situation that needs to be managed properly, meticulously and wisely.

Beyond removing from our forehead all that accumulation of negative emotions that grip us, it is convenient to place ourselves before that emotional knot to understand and untangle it. A complex situation that if we control and decipher it will offer us the necessary impetus to move forward.

Moving on is the only valid option (and we know it)

Sometimes we underestimate the wonderful resilience and self-improvement that each of us has within us, right in our hearts. An indestructible rough diamond capable of lighting our paths. To delve into this idea it is worth knowing a little story that will undoubtedly make us reflect and assume more than one conclusion.

The story of a message was lost in an old bookstore

We have all come across the famous sign that bears the following phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On”. Keeping calm and moving on is arguably one of the best-selling messages in the field of personal growth. However, its origin is especially curious. To find out, we must travel to World War II and to the British capital, London in 1940.

The government knew that the situation in the UK could not be more complicated. The war was at its worst and German army bombs were hitting cities almost regularly. They needed defensive instruments, and not only related to the armament, they needed to raise the morale of the population, feed the well-known British stoic phlegm so that the spirits did not fall before such a context.

For this they designed several posters in order to paste them on the streets. Thus, several proposals were created such as “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will bring us Victory”  and  “Keep Calm and Carry On”. The latter was the poster chosen and for which more than two million copies were printed. It should be said that a good pinch of the general budget was invested for this project.

Now the question is, did this striking and well-intentioned poster do any good? The answer is simple: it was not necessary. These posters never appeared on the streets. Winston Churchill considered that they were not suitable because the English did not need paternalistic messages. Human beings already have their own mechanism to draw strength from adversity, resist and move on …

Placing those messages on the streets was little more than a joke and a mockery. Hence, they were hidden, concealed and destroyed a good part of them, so that no one would discover that they had invested a considerable amount of money in something that, simply, was not necessary.

It was not until 2000 that a part of them was found by chance in an old bookstore. The finding was so surprising that it did not take long for a phrase created several decades before to be brought to light and popularized …

Going forward regardless, a matter of enthusiasm and confidence

We may know it, that a part of us reminds us that the human being is made of an indestructible material, and that it is in their genes to resist and persist. However… what can we do when we have lost our enthusiasm? How do we react when our feet are trapped, our hearts are dead, and our minds are inhabited by negative thoughts?

Keys to keep going without failing in the attempt

• Feel your emotions. We pointed out at the beginning, we must be able to delve into our emotional tangle, become aware of negative emotions and understand them, crumble them, make them our own and channel them so that, little by little, they lose intensity.
• What do you deserve? Think about it, delve into that question and make a list of what you deserve as a person: be happy, have another chance, be freer, take responsibility for yourself, love and be loved, achieve success, get excited again …
• Observe how your feet touch the ground. It may seem silly, but something as simple as feeling our feet touch the ground gives us a sense of security and mobility. We are not clinging, we have the ability to move, to move forward … to act.

• Practice deep breathing and meditation.  Connecting with us and with everyone around us is essential. These practices will help us focus, channel emotions, and clear our minds to become aware of other perspectives.
• Build a group of resilient people. Among your friends and family there are people who have gone through the worst and who have undoubtedly survived. Allow yourself to learn from them.
• Create a mantra. Create a phrase that will serve as encouragement and motivation in your day to day. Here are some examples: “I deserve”, “I am brave”, “Amazing things await me, I am ready to go for them”.

Finally, we have the most important step: to gain momentum. Going forward is a leap of faith, of confidence in yourself and in your own resources. Something that we can all do to achieve a fuller and more satisfactory reality. The one we deserve.