The Storms: Our Greatest Teacher

This blog post is a bit of a continuation of my last post “All Roads Lead to Home”. When my Dad and I were traveling a few weeks ago, we drove through a severe thunderstorm. I have driven a lot in my life, in all kinds of weather but I had never been through a storm quite like that. There was heavy rain creating low visibility, hail the size of marbles, wind gusts predicted to be up to 90 mph and we saw three semi trucks that had turned over on the highway. It is fair to say that I had white knuckles and was doing my best to stay connected to my breath to help me through.

After that experience, I started thinking about how it is a beautiful analogy for life. Storms are inevitable in life. Some are more intense than others. Some will challenge you to keep calm and trust that you will make it through. And the storm is always changing. The winds are shifting, the visibility is little to none as the rain intensifies and as you keep moving - because life keeps moving forward - you come to a spot where the storm lets up a little. There’s a moment to catch your breath. And then as you take your next step, you may move into another intense part of the same storm. 

Then you get to a point where you see light through the clouds upon the horizon, there’s a break and you know you have made it to the other side. You look in the rearview mirror to see the dark and ominous clouds with gratitude that you made through. Through the storm and because of the storm, you have learned things about yourself that you couldn’t have learned otherwise and you feel a grounded strength, knowing that if you can handle that, you can handle anything.

This is much what life has felt like for me lately. This time of my life has been my greatest practice of yoga that I have ever moved through. As the storm rages around me and within me and there are moments I am not sure how I will make it through, I find every bit of strength I can to keep moving forward even when I doubt I will see the other side. Our greatest form of yoga is when we can stay present with ourselves through these difficult moments. To find our center, our breath, while the storm rages around us, knocking us to our knees. As we move with awareness through the storm we can gain our greatest insights into who we really are and who we are becoming. The storms shape us in a way that nothing else could. And then we come to the other side of the storm with a deeper appreciation for life and a heart full of gratitude. 

If you are moving through a storm in your life, I invite you to take a moment of true presence to be with it all. To honor your strength to keep moving forward despite if it feels like you are doing it with grace or not. You are showing up. You are building your capacity to hold the complete range of this human experience and that includes the most severe storms and the most perfect sunny days. Trust yourself. You are so strong and may you feel that strength on and off the mat.

And as always, Shar(e)on Lightly