He Who Faces Adversity Deserves the Strength
Life will hit you on more than one occasion, and at times it does so as hard as it can. It puts you in the face of the adversity of a deep and eternal storm. It shakes up all of your emotional balance and puts it to the test.
At first you have the feeling that something bad is going to happen and that your sky is clouding over. Next you discover that it was true. You find yourself attacked by a wind that pushes you against the walls and fills you with anxiety. It starts raining and even hails.
When you are in this moment, the storm forces you to make a decision. You can either welcome it as an opportunity to face adversity until the storm passes. Or you can let yourself fall down, defeated, in the eternal rain. You need to face adversity with your inner strength and continue forward.
Light enters through the cracks
It is totally understandable that if you are in a storm the only thing you think about is in the cold, darkness, and wetness that your body is feeling. However, you cannot forget that even in the bleakest of circumstances, sunlight is always hiding behind the clouds.
It may seem corny or difficult to put into practice, especially if you’re having a bad time. But light always comes in through the cracks. And when your heart suffers most, that’s when it has the most cracks.
“Adversity is an opportunity of virtue.”
-Seneca-
For that reason there are many who have said that adversity is an opportunity to hurt yourself within. And also to learn why you do it. Adversity could also be a way to learn something about yourself you did not know you had.
Getting your feelings out
Many people go through something very important that can augment their pain, and you might be one of them. In those moments when you feel your worst, paradoxically, you aren’t able to express your feelings. You also can’t let off steam with others. This is a problem, because getting your feelings out in the open is how you free yourself of them. It also implies letting others help you.
If a loved one passes away and leaves a great void within you. If you have broken up with your partner. If you suffer from an illness that is conditioning your life… Whatever the motive may be of the adversity that is wounding you, it is beneficial that you share it with someone. Someone who is willing to listen to and lend you a hand.
“Adversity has the gift of awaking talents
that in times of prosperity would have remained dormant.”
-Horacio-
On the contrary, if this is also too complicated for you, you can focus your feelings towards another activity. One that will allow you to externalize them. Write, paint, dance, or any other thing you enjoy and which makes you will comfortable. Remember that what the mouth isn’t able to say, the body shows and manifests through health problems.
Let go of the fear
As a general rule of thumb, storms generate fear within us and incite us to look for refuge and shelter. In real life, the exact same thing happens. The bigger the adversity that afflicts us and the abyss we have to face, the greater the will we have to find some place where we feel safe.
This longing for warmth during the coldest days of our lives is what pushes us to look at fear bravely. This is the only way you can take notice of the strength you truly have within. Clinging to the idea that we can overcome the weakness that we suffer from, this gives us hope and reasons to live.
There comes a time when you have to fight, break the shell that paralyzes you and leap in order to not fall along with your fear and pain into the abyss. Then you will have faced the adversity and will have deserved the strength you showed. The strength you didn’t think you possessed, but which belongs to you. But remember: he who faces his adversities, deserves the strength, and that’s why it’s his.
“I had the privilege of feeling that I had lost it all.
I was lucky enough to then discover what I really needed.
Sadness sometimes tastes like peace.”
-Sara Bueno-