A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skilled Sailor. Read This If You Are Going Through Difficult Times.

Our lives are filled with a myriad of experiences that will affect us in some way. Living, we are doomed to be hit by the unpredictable, some even bewilder us and take our balance.

I believe we are 'castaways'. And we're sailing alone in this unknown ocean called life. The only thing that accompanies us and that we have control of is our raft which is composed of what we call "myself", our famous construction of ourselves, our ego, our identity.

Sometimes we come across turbulent seas, these can mean a lot of things: people who are difficult to deal with, a crisis in marriage, a lack of lofe, and unforeseen job, a selective denial, or any unpleasant news that changes our mood. Even a stronger blow: losing someone we love, the ultimate chest stab. At last, we are in a chaotic storm that seems to have no end.

And what can we do about all this, if we are shipwrecked in the midst of a rough sea? Some, inexperienced, even shout at the sea. What would you think of a castaway man screaming at the sea to keep him calm again? Who struggles in the water in the hope that the movement of his arms will calm the surroundings? At the very least you lost control of yourself. It's panicking, soul panting. I imagine it is normal for a navigator, in its first time facing something so unexpected, try everything, even scream or struggle in vain.

This is the problem of the new navigator, it still does not understand that there are things out of your control. Over time, this navigator will learn (if allowed) more about how to handle the sea and how to handle your raft.

And thus he will become experienced, passing through different storms and seas, he will understand that it would not make sense to spend so much energy in an empty action: to try to control something uncontrollable like the sea.

Some actions that I believe to be achievable during a storm: to hold on the raft so as not get lost and drown in the sea; paddle with all your might to keep moving and out of the storm.

And believe me, this storm will pass, just like all the others. Sometimes our raft can suffer damages, we can lose some trunks that made it. Depending on the storm, there may be only one trunk left in which we hold tightly with tears of happiness for surviving.

Incredibly, we have the power to rebuild it on the high seas, creating a raft strong enough to withstand the storm that just passed. And soon, the unknown of life will create the new storms, damaging the raft again, testing our strenghts and rebuilding ability.

And this is the wonder of the sea, however diverse its storms may be, we can always learn from them. We will always be able to rebuild and relearn to sail.

But most important, we must have notion that we have no control over anything. We have no control over the traffic, the speculative actions of the stock exchange, the humor of the loved one, the rain on a beach day, the "no" of an opportunity or the action of the unknown in the life of the one we love.

I believe that the only thing in this life we can have control of is our reaction and action to the environment that surround us. They are choices of action on something and reacting to something. The rest is accompanied by the movement of our breath. That is, we have control of our raft, that alone is enough. We can not control our life, therefore, our sea. In the storm, stand firm and accept it, make it your mate, so it can teach you a lot about how to navigate. Remember, "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor"

STAY STRONG