making the best out of a difficult situation

not negative at all. may you go on in strength and light!

Two books that helped me were Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be by Lama Surya Das and Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach.  Both of which have many meditations to help you let go of all that.

Don't be hard on yourself when you have setbacks, because there WILL be setbacks.  It's hard to change those old thought patterns…they're actually hard wired in your brain, so you have to just learn to observe yourself when things begin to happen, catch the thoughts and break the patterns.  :)

You can do it. :)

I to have had alot of adversities in my life and it has made me angry at times.  I have learned by accepting what is or what was is the begging of the healing.
Take care,
Paul

there are different approaches to transformation and one of them that i found helpful ultimately was the approach espoused by pema chodron (you can see her videos on youtube). instead of trying to get out of the mud she suggests you go through it and examine the mud. she says 'if you feel like a piece of sh*&, then ask yourself what color is the sh*&, what texture? what smell?' i have said to some friends, the fastest way out of hell is often 'through' it. i think sometimes people run from their pain vs. going into it and exploring it. exploring it is challenging. i kept running from my pain for years and it just kept making it worse. sorta like an inbox that i was avoiding thinking it would go away. as i began sorting through the inbox it was challenging, but useful and i got lighter not from trying to get out, but from going in.

the book 'the artist's way' was helpful to me also as she suggests writing out whatever comes out of you, anger, pain, joy, bliss. three pages a day is her suggestion. i wrote 10 some days and none other days and amounts in between. for me it was like mental and emotional restroom use. letting it out in a safe space. i would discard them too, but it let me just give room to the anger and pain in me. in art therapy sometimes what comes out is dark and ugly, but as people go through that it gets lighter. i have come to see that anger is not so much the enemy so much as how that anger is used and expressed. liberation has often come through people angry for example at the english which is how america was founded. but also anger has committed murder and burned down houses. digging through it often i find the wounds that need to be healed and gifts from those wounds - the wisdom of understanding that came from learning what not to do. sorta like burning oneself on a stove and learning to be more careful. or breaking a leg and as it heals learning more about mobility of the body and how to stretch properly. etc…

i think many people are in pain in our culture because our culture is not serving/feeding the soul. speaking of which, you may enjoy thomas moore's book, 'care and feeding of the soul'. good luck in your journey.

My heart goes out to you, and I'm sending you Light. I understand the way you are feeling right now, as you have told us, and I know you will make it through.
The book, Science of Mind, by Ernest Holmes, has been so helpful to me in times like these. As soon as i saw your post, I ran upstairs to get it and choose, just two meditations to share with you today:

His Arms enfold me, His Strength upholds me,
His Presence fills me with Life and Joy.
I shall nevermore be sad or depressed, for I know that I do not walk Life's path alone.
There is One Who goes with me and tells me all the things I should know.
There is a Presence guiding me into the perfect way.
    I rejoice in knowing I am not alone.

and
 
We now let go of everything into the contemplation of peace and good; of truth and beauty. We are conscious that God is all there is…we know that each of us is that center of Divine Life..in this perfect peace, this complete happiness and this Absolute Wholeness-which is the center of our very being-we know that whatever is for our benefit is already provided.

This are boh in the meditation section at the end of this beautiful and inspiring book that I so often open, and find something to ground me.
There are so many more…

Try to focus inward, sending yur own healing light through each deep breath, down into your Divine center. You will prevail over whatever storms are swirling around you now.

In Light…Shelle