We tend to associate storms with negativity or darkness. They appear in books and movies to set the tone for sadness, anger, loss, and fright. Perhaps, people are so wrapped up in this perspective that every storm, even inner storms, coincides with this negative attachment. But what if there was a different perspective? Could there be a possibility that our inner storms strike for specific reasons? In a previous post, I talked about how not all storms come to disrupt your life. In fact, sometimes they come to clear your path.
Chaotic as they are, these storms arise to bring unsettled burdens to the surface so that we can clarify what is essential and break free from things that no longer serve us. They force our hand to make a decision. One we have likely not wanted to make or didn’t realize we had to make until the storm arrived. To benefit from these occasional storms, you must see it as an opportunity and an ally. It is a chance to listen to your intuition, heal, learn, and rebuild your life.
For me the peace in the storm is often certainty about what I now must do. It’s clarity and an opportunity to re-evaluate what is important to me and what I want to do next.
Here are some ways you can start seeing your storms as an ally:
Embrace Your Emotions
Emotions are gifts that give us missing pieces to the very complex puzzles of ourselves. However, there’s a reason for every emotion you feel, and by accepting and reflecting on them, you can understand yourself better.
Human emotions have value and allowing yourself to feel them- even the bad ones- can help you through all storms. In short, allow yourself to feel what you feel and take the positive from each emotion.
I wrote about inner peace amid turmoil in a previous post. The more we can accept our emotions, the faster we will find peace.
Take A Step Back
When you take a step back to ponder the how’s and why’s of your emotions during a tough time, it allows you to detach and calm the waters. And calmness is the key to getting through rocky situations.
Doing this can also give you a different perspective. A lot of times, we react negatively to our emotions. So, letting yourself feel them and then detaching can help you see things in an alternative light. It might seem difficult at first, but a little bit of time and a shift in perspective can help clarify the steps you need to take next more rationally.
Use The Positive
Even if some of the things you are feeling are “negative”, understand that you have learned some important things about what makes you feel a certain way. And that, young padawan, is very important to know.
What you can do, is allow those feelings to fuel some positive change that you can make in your life. It is an opportunity to rebuild, reset and move on to another chapter with the experience and knowledge you gained from the storm.
It’s no secret that storms can take a toll. And once you go through one without taking the time to understand why you’re there in the first place, they can be repetitive. The universe has an uncanny way of presenting us with the same situations until we have learned what we need to learn from them.
