You are on your game, crushing it with confidence and ease.  All is good in your world with great health, a rewarding career and fulfilling relationships with friends and family.  You are moving effortlessly through life, gliding on the wings of angels, and firing on all eight cylinders cruising down the highway of happiness. The Gods are looking down at you, smiling, as you feel invincible buoyed by the abundance of beauty offered from the universe. There is infinite love in your heart and peace in your soul. It is a magical experience I hope we all achieve at some point in our lives with sustainable levels.

The law of averages also dictates the opposite as the tailwinds can rapidly shift to headwinds. The landscape of life that once offered breathtaking peaks now plummets to dark valleys. The great heights you achieved can be equally matched with the soaring depths of despair. A painful divorce, loss of job, declining health,  or death of a love one can all be the catalyst for this downward spiral. Love vs hate, joy vs sorrow: these polar opposites can flip in a breathtaking moment. The wheels of your shiny red car come off – often one at a time but sometimes all four rip apart simultaneously – careening you off the road. You lay in a ditch when not too long ago you were cartwheels on a mountain.

Of course, life does not always play out in such dramatic fashion. You may never achieve glorious heights or devastating lows but the journey of our unique existence is guaranteed to ebb and flow for each of us. It is all relative, you cannot be happy unless you have been sad.  The good news is that as we experience more in life we learn how to manage these challenges and cope with this proverbial yo-yo that continuously goes up and down.

Just as we become increasingly mindful of the smaller windows of joy and sorrow, it’s important to view the majors milestones too. The endless list of success and achievements, but also the failures and painful setbacks. There will be many victories and celebrations, but also many battles and wars to endure in life too. This is the human condition, the human experience. Take note by living in the moment and fully appreciating when things are rolling smoothly for you. Embrace all the beauty and never take it for granted because adversity will arrive at your doorstep. There will be challenges that may ultimately bring you to your knees. Be emboldened with the hope and knowledge that things can and will get better too. Gravity may weigh you down but then free you with an unbearable lightness of being. The swings of the pendulum are inevitable; it is our attitude and present moment awareness that guide us to persevere through growth and transformation.

So enjoy it when your proverbial automobile is humming flawlessly on all cylinders on the road called life. It is a glorious sensation of beauty when the stars align and you feel on top of the world. Fully embrace each precious moment. Just recognize even a Ferrari spends a fair amount of time in the shop as despite all that horsepower, the horses are relegated to the stable. Such is the ebb ‘n flow of life.