The #1 Mindset Shift That Helped Me Stay in Alignment When Life Felt Unbearable

In April of 2017, my beloved father passed from Lewy Body Dementia. For two and a half years leading up to his passing, I made weekly 4-hour round trips to be with him—week in, week out. It was one of the most difficult and heartbreaking chapters of mine and my family’s life.

If there was ever a time I needed to truly live the tools I’d gathered on my personal growth journey, this was it.

At first, I resisted it all. I wrestled with the unfairness of it. “How can this be happening? This isn’t right! This shouldn’t be the way his life ends.” I was stuck in the swirl of frustration, fear, and deep sorrow. I was trying to mentally out-logic the pain.

But a few months in, something softened.

I had a realization that changed everything:
I could keep resisting reality—and suffer.
Or I could accept what is—and find peace within it.

So I chose acceptance. Again and again.

I shifted my focus to what I could control:
How I showed up.
How much love and light I brought into the room with me.
How present I could be, even on the hard days. Especially on the hard days.

And here’s the truth I want to offer you:
The situation didn’t change. But my experience of it did.

I no longer felt helpless. I felt purposeful. I trusted that on some deep, unseen level, he felt my presence and my love. Love began to lead, not sorrow. Peace started to anchor me more than pain.

This is the work.
This is alignment in action.
Change your thoughts, shift your energy, choose your state—and your experience transforms. Even in grief. Even in uncertainty.

Life will always hand us change, challenge, and the unexpected. But when we stop resisting and start accepting, we create space for grace. We stay connected to peace and love—even in the eye of the storm.

And from that space, we can become a lighthouse for others. A living example that even in life’s hardest moments, we can lead with love.