On the hit television show Survivor, contestants try to outwit, outplay, and outlast everyone else until they’re the sole survivor. Songs like Elvis Presley’s “Only the Strong Survive” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” are deeply embedded in our popular culture. Survival seems to be a recurring theme in today’s popular culture. This pervasive theme of survival extends to real life as well. We survive natural disasters as well as everyday events. Surviving has been elevated to an art form! It’s no wonder, then, that we think just getting through each day is enough to ask for in life. We tend to stop at survival instead of taking the next step toward a new and more fulfilling existence. If we’ve faced trauma and tragedy, we may stay linked to our troubles, insisting we’re still fighting for our life, long after the actual threat has passed. We may have a habit of holding onto our survival mentality, rather than using our hardships to heal and grow and to help others learn from the lessons of our own experience. It’s about doing more than just surviving in this life and instead rethinking your situation so that you can create a better life.  Over and over, I’ve found that the troubles of our lives, as much as they pummel us, are often treasures in the making—if we can transcend our pain to see things differently