How To Weather Storms In Life

When we have storms in our lives, we choose how we face them.  With fear, we can run and hide, hoping that it will blow over.  We can close our eyes and remain oblivious to them and not deal with the storm which is staring us right in the face.  Or we can slowly open our eyes and work our way through the clouds, through the storms and into the sunshine.

Storms shake up our world, our views, our relationships and our sense of self.  Like gardeners who prune their plants in order to shed what isn’t growing, in our lives, storms do the same.  Storms blow over in time.  Allowing the storm its time to shake us up is a good thing I think.  It causes us to deal with our fears, to move forward into solid thinking and to find balance where perhaps there was none.  We’re usually on shaky ground when the storm hits and we feel its full impact when we are not balanced with inner peace.  That’s when the fear emerges and we choose fight or flight.  But those aren’t the only two options.  The third option is to ride out the storm.  I think that’s the hardest option, but the most beneficial for our spiritual growth.

Riding out the storm takes courage.  It takes facing the storm, allowing it to roll in and bluster around us.  It causes us to find our balance, dig our roots in deeper and take a deep breath in order to stay in the eye of the storm.  To know, with full knowledge, that we can ride out the storm, grow from its affects and emerge with our heartlight intact, facing the sunshine.

It’s not easy.  It’s a choice.  It’s holding our inner peace while the storm rages.  It’s a process.  It’s not always forward moving through the storm.  Sometimes it’s like dancing a cha cha, moving backwards and forwards until staying in the same place isn’t feasible to us anymore and then we make the choice to step forwards towards the sunshine ~ or step backwards to return to the darkness of the past.  It’s letting go of what was, what could be and allowing ourselves to find inner peace simply with what is.

It’s natural to feel alone in a storm.  That’s when we reach out to our soul family for a loving embrace, a hand to hold, a loving connection which helps us to hold onto the knowledge that there is sunshine on the horizon, even when we can’t see through the clouds, the thunder and the lightning.  It helps when they can hold the vision with us so that if we take a step back into the storm, we are fortified with the kind reminder that there is sunshine when we move forward.

So if you are riding out a storm in your life, please know that there are others who care.  Eventually we all have storms in our paths, some are big dangerous lightning-filled storm clouds, filled with big raindrops and clanging thunder that sweep us off of our feet and toss our realities, changing them forever.  Some storms, simply shake us up so that we can see with the help of the lightning, be cleansed by the rain and hear the words of reality before the sun rises.  Either way, I think storms are good in the end.  They are a chance to grow, to find balance and to fortify our inner wisdom and peace.

Storms let us choose to grow or to remain sodden.  Face the sunshine dear friends.  Storms only last as long as you allow them.  You always stop crying eventually.  So feel your storm, find your center heartlight, bless your loving essence and once the storm moves on, your balance, your strength and your beautiful soul will regain its momentum and begin to shine again.

Shine On!

xo

 

 

 

Storm’s a brewin’

Lightning, Thunder, Stormy Seas…

The last few days I’ve been suffering from a migraine which usually means the barometer is changing and it has been.  We’ve been having some thunderstorms, rain, sun and unusual weather.  As I sit here writing this post, it’s intermittently been raining cats and dogs one minute, with thunderous clouds and loud, rolling thunder and then suddenly the sky switches to bright sunshine with the quiet roll of thunder in the background.  In fact, I feel like it’s like me these days…sunshine with a touch of raincloud followed by a bit of thunder.

But I digress because I wanted to post about change and how difficult it can be on the body, the mind and others around us.  I think this is where my inner and outer thunderclouds have originated.  I’m on a changing cycle I think and it’s a bit stormy here for me as I go through the changes.  I’m a bit daunted to be honest by the unknown ahead, but having delved into the unknown before, I am shoring up my courage to keep taking baby steps.

The outer thunder is just the careless roar of others which I can deal with although I’d prefer calm, sun-filled moments.  But that’s ok for me.  I’ve been through far worse.  The inner thunder is more treacherous to me and having experienced it before, it leaves me a little shaky these days.  Nothing like a touch of the unknown to scare me a bit.

I remember when I was first diagnosed, I was afraid to cry.  Imagine being afraid to cry!?  But I was afraid that if I started to cry, I’d never stop.  Now I know that sounds silly, but to me, it was perfectly logical.  I was unable to mourn the loss of my breasts because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop crying about it.  So I held the pain inside until I almost burst.  Then a very dear friend told me not to be afraid to cry because eventually I’d stop…and those simple words, ‘eventually you’ll stop’ made all the difference in the world to me.  And the shift happened.

I cried for the loss of my breasts, for the time I spent in chemo, radiation, in hospitals, alone…I cried for the time I worried that I wouldn’t see my boys become teenagers.  I cried through sad movies, silly commercials and any true life story article or movie or book I could put my hands on.  It was like I needed that reason to cry and not the reason that I had in my own life and heart.  But through allowing those tears to escape me, I felt the weight of the sadness lifting from my soul and my heart.  It was when I allowed myself to cry, I was able to heal my heart and begin to take baby steps again.

It’s been a busy 8 weeks since my Dad passed and I’ve not had a lot of time to mourn the loss.  I know all about the grieving process having endured it when I had breast cancer 10 years ago.  I’ve been moving along through the 7 steps, only to stagger now.  But in the thundercloud where I am presently, it’s only fitting that a storm’s a brewin’ because I think many changes have occurred in the last 8 weeks of my life…and I just have to keep my thoughts on the prize of a sparkling rainbow!

Cheers to fears, tears and thunderclouds…

for they make the Rainbows that much sweeter!

xo