How To Weather Any Storm
Lessons to help navigate the toughest of times
It was the middle of the afternoon when I peeked behind the curtain and witnessed the pitch-black sky outside. I could have sworn it was the middle of the night, and yet here I was at noon, smack bang in the middle of the wildest storm I had ever witnessed.
Despite the wind and rain, this storm sparked an enlightening insight that allowed me to finally understand what Abraham Lincoln meant all those years ago when he said “This too shall pass”. This realisation has guided me through every internal storm, malaise, grief, setback and hardship since.
“A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day.” — Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
No matter how bad the storm was or how bad it may become, somewhere deep down I knew it could not last forever. I didn’t know when it would end. I didn’t know what might change to make it end. I didn’t even know how it would end. Despite all I didn’t know, what I knew with absolute certainty was that eventually, the sun would shine again. Don’t ask me how I knew, maybe it was intuition. Truthfully, how I knew didn’t matter, all that mattered was my certainty and the liberation it provided. Whether it’s days, weeks or years, the current storm will have the same fate as every other storm — eventually, it will wither away because all storms are terminal.
This realisation rings equally as true when applied to internal storms, malaise, grief, setbacks and hardship. Doesn’t matter how dark, noisy or scary the storm is, it is still terminal. Just as I knew that the weather would turn bright again, I also know with certainty that any storm you, me or anybody else faces, will eventually pass. The ‘what’ and the ‘how’ it passes are irrelevant, the only thing that matters is being certain you will see the other side of it.
When times get tough or a storm strikes, affirm to yourself ‘This too shall pass.’ It is an affirmation that has survived two hundred years and it will survive many hundred more.
“It is not what happens to you but how you react that matters” — Epictetus
When you know that your storm will pass you can shift your attention to focus on solutions rather than the problem.
