Are You Living in the Storm, Or in the Eye of the Hurricane?
Have you ever noticed that there are some people that always seem to be living in a state of chaos?
Maybe you know someone like that intimately?
(Maybe they even show up in your mirror occasionally?)
And then there are others,that no matter what is going on around them, they always seem to stay calm, cool, and collected.
So what’s their secret?
I’d like you to take a moment and imagine an intense storm, such as a hurricane or a tropical cyclone. All around the perimeter, there is violent rain and wind. The most catastrophic of these storms can experience winds in excess of 150 miles-per-hour.
But in the center, there is something very different going on. In this area of the storm, the winds are light and the sky is clear. The outer part of the storm is still fierce and torrential, but the center, or the “eye” of the storm is calm and peaceful.
Our lives are a lot like that storm.
Frequently, we are bombarded by life’s “heavy rain”. Some rain arrives without warning. The wife that tells her husband that she doesn’t love him anymore. The dark spot that shows up on the x-ray. The boss that call you into the office and says, “Thank you for your service, but…”
And other times, we tend to bring the rain upon ourselves. We allow small inconveniences to negatively influence or ruin our day. We allow ourselves to be exposed to the wrong type of media. We waste valuable time hanging around the doom-and-gloomers.
Yet in any type of storm, you have a choice. You can intentionally decide to remain in the eye, in your center, where the skies are clear and the winds are light.
Here’s an exercise that can help you find your center when dealing with the storms of life.
I’d like you to spend some time creating a mental place, within you, visualized and designed by you, where you can visit anytime you want to, by merely closing your eyes and activating your imagination.
This place is where the outside world cannot reach you (in times when you decide that you do not want to be reached). It is your personal, private, comfortable, and impenetrable mind-space. It is your “eye of the hurricane”. This will be your own, personal inner-sanctuary.
You can create your inner-sanctuary to look like anything you want, wherever you want it to be. Within it you can do anything you wish. You can be whomever you chose to be. You can ask any question that you desire to be answered. And once you are in your inner-sanctuary, the storms of life will have less of an affect upon you.
Find a quiet place, without interruption, and imagine an ideal place of tranquility and relaxation. Often, people imagine their sanctuary as a tropical location, or on a mountain-top, maybe next to the ocean, or beside a running stream…sometimes even in outer-space. There are no limits to how your sanctuary can be designed.
Focus on feeling comfortable, peaceful, calm, and safe. Once created, you can return to this space by simply closing your eyes and desiring to be there. Come back to this place as often as needed.
And although you can never fully avoid the storms of life, you can choose how you will respond to them.
Until next time, be creative!