It is possible to be in a stressful situation without getting yourself into a frenzy. You probably know someone who always seems to thrive and to remain hopeful even in the face of overwhelming circumstances. What is it that allows someone to not only endure, but to prevail, as they encounter the storms of life? Where do they find the power to remain still and at peace and not allow the chaos to inundate them?
During a typical day, we may be faced with challenges that can affect us positively or negatively. How we choose to interpret the situation will determine its influence and impact on our lives. Externally, there will always be reasons to get stressed out or overwhelmed by the ups and downs of life. Life can be a rollercoaster of emotions if you allow what’s happening outside to control what’s going on within you.
When your primary method to coping with difficulty is reactionary, you can be left feeling depleted. Physical energy sources like strength, endurance and stamina are immediately accessible but are only sustainable for a short period of time. If you live life by reacting to what is happening around you, you will not have the energy to weather the storm. The key is to fuel yourself with energy that has the capacity to carry you through the difficulty. Think about a time when you were in a physical competition and you reached that critical moment when your body felt exhausted. You didn’t think you could go on, but then suddenly you remember how much you wanted to win and somehow you found the strength to finish.
It is important to maintain your physical resources by taking care of your health through proper exercise, nutrition and rest. But it is equally important to ensure that you are filled up emotionally so that you have access to this powerful energetic resource as well. Passion, excitement, hope, trust and gratitude are just some of the emotions that can be used to keep you grounded inside when things get unsettling on the outside. We have to be able to go within ourselves and find those things that bring us passion and excitement and then use that as leverage to call upon our physical resources during times of need.
Even more important than staying strong in the face of difficulty is the ability to remain calm and unaffected. Rather than waiting for the storm to pass, we can find it within ourselves to not be defeated. This comes from your inner self, your core, where there is only stillness and peace. Peace is not the absence of difficulty, rather it is not allowing the external stresses to disrupt us internally. We cannot allow the chaos of life to block access to our inner peace. When you have access to your inner peace there is a deep understanding that the difficulty is temporary and that everything will work out.
There is power in knowing that you will persevere regardless of how events unfold and how circumstances reveal themselves. Letting go of the need to externally control those aspects of life that you cannot control can be very freeing. You will instead be filled with an inner peace that can brave any storm.
“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” – Anthony Robbins
Copyright Dr. Julie Doobay 2013
