Today, in the RFB Newsletter, I will share with you one quote that I wish someone had told me throughout my life each time I got stuck, confused, struggling, or anything of the like.
Perhaps I was even told, but the burdens of the moment never allowed me to imbibe it.
That quote is,
‘This too shall pass.’
Those four-word phrase have changed my life, and my only regret is it took me this long to make it my mantra.
Now I have those four words in my back pocket each time things get overwhelming. This too, like every other challenge before it, shall pass.
Note that challenges don’t just pass because we worried hard enough so much so that they magically disappeared. No, they disappeared in due time because by life’s design it will pass one way or another.
Sometimes it takes longer than we expect, and other times it passes as quickly as it came.
Sometimes, it is not the actual event that passes but our perception of the event that changes.
I remember one particular event amongst many, being a 12-year-old student in boarding school. I was being bullied by senior students for ‘rolling my eyes’ at them (I can’t even remember if I did)
I was picked on and punished for a good one month before I guess they forgot about me or they moved on to some other more exciting prey.
School felt like hell during this time. I was terrified every minute of every day.
In my mind then, that had to be the greatest humiliation of my life.
I wish someone had told 12-year-old me then that this too shall pass and I actually believed. I probably would have slept better instead of crying my eyes to sleep each night.
Looking back now, I am amused at that particular incident, not because it wasn’t serious, but because as serious as it was then, it pales in comparison to the other challenges I have had to go through in life.
Since then, life has thrown a hundred more challenges my way- job losses, devastating breakups, and the loss of close friends and family to death, -to name a few.
And guess what? Those too passed.
Life’s challenges never end, and the best we can do is to remind ourselves each time that ‘This too shall pass’ and try our best to weather the storm.
If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm
‘Adversity introduces a man to himself.’
Albert Einstein
One of my secrets to living happily has been simply acknowledging the ups and downs of being alive. Everything has an expiry date, including life itself.
So my message to you today:
You might be going through something in this moment that seems to be consuming you.
Stop for a second, and remind yourself of the one truth about your situation, which is ‘This too shall pass.’
These too shall pass.
