From Burdens to Challenges

 I was contemplating today the difference between "burden" and "challenge". Of course, trudging through the snow this weekend might have felt burdensome at times, but I think the qualifier is that a person expects not to have to trudge through the snow. For example, whenever I think that the weather is too unusual for April, my mind automatically rejects the snow and my having to trudge through it, as well as tread carefully along the ice. But if I didn't have a vision in my mind of how the month of April is supposed to unfold, would trudging through the snow feel as burdensome?
  It seems that there are two major conditions or "mentalities" that make a challenge into a burden. The first is a sense of inner conflict between accepting the current situation and looking for another that one expects to find in its place. It's as though my mind is still questioning whether this current condition needs to be there or not, so I haven't fully reconciled myself to it. This often happens when a person is conflicted between accepting a consequence and trying to see if another could just as well be there in its place.
   The second obstacle to accepting a challenge is an inability or a lack of confidence in one's ability to shoulder difficult feelings. It's not that the situation itself is difficult, but rather the uneasiness of one's feelings around it.  This seems to be where being mindfully present can be very helpful. When I am not identified or invested in the feelings themselves, I am able to witness them and not get overly attached to either the feelings themselves or succeeding in the tasks that I have been given for the week. Rather, I am simply aware that this is a difficult situation for me personally, and I am going to need to slow things down and take them step by step.
   Finally, I think it helps to know that in the midst of personally taxing or difficult situations, there is impermanence: the situation will change over time, as the conditions change as well. In that way, I am not attached to any outcome either way, and thus I can have more energy available to accept the challenge. It's the attachment to my existence that leads me to reject the challenge and see it as a burden: I am deep down inside attached to "winning" and "losing", and thus this creates an added sense of burden.