Life by nature is cyclical. Good times don’t last forever, tough times will not. Our challenge is we don’t want good times to end and we cannot wait for tough times to end. Understanding the transient nature of life gives us the clarity that we should focus on what we need to do rather than keep worrying and stressing about when the situation will change.

A storm no doubt causes damage and some people get blown away. But when we find a storm coming our way and hold onto something firm, we find that at some point the storm ends, and we may have managed reasonably well under the circumstances. On looking back we realise it was not the ferocity of the storm but what we held on to that truly mattered.

We need to hold onto our self-belief. We may get support from outside, but if we lose confidence in ourselves and crack under the pressure of adversity, we will not be able to endure the storms of life. We need to tap into the belief that our ability to face a problem is always greater than the problem.

We need to hold onto our relationships. No matter how good and talented we may be, some situations need us to combine our efforts with others. Our ability to reach out and seek help in terms of ideas, perspectives, and support, helps weather a storm.

We need to create calm within and operate from that space. We cannot face an outer storm with an inner storm in our life. When we find inner balance and equanimity, we are able to find calm and creative answers even in chaos. Our outer strength will come from our inner calm.

We need to bring out the best in us. Not everyone is great at everything, but each one of us is really good at something which is our unique strength. When we play to our own strength, we learn to find our own way out in a storm.

We need the conviction of patience. Sometimes waiting it out and allowing the storm to subside may well be the right thing to do.

A tree is as strong as its roots. We will get a bit shaken and affected, but the storm cannot uproot us if we are mindfully rooted within. And even though sometimes with every passing day we find the storm getting stronger, we must keep our faith that we can be stronger than any storm. And as we find our inner strength we need to keep our calm in knowing that no matter how tough the situation, this too shall pass.