It’s important for your life to crumble into a million tiny pieces of garbage at least a few times.
I’m not talking about a little bump in the road or a case of the Mondays. I’m talking about those times in life when it all goes bad all at once. Those times when the floodgates open, and every little thing that could go wrong does.
Those times when it all just seems too overwhelming to deal with.
You wonder if the universe is playing some sick joke on you, and you dare it to drop just one more challenge on your already overflowing plate.
You are officially at the intersection of "Help Me God" and "Jesus Take The Wheel."
Seriously, though. You know those times. They're the times you look back on and say, “Yeah, I got through that.”
Although we all hope and pray life’s storms will be gentle and leave us intact, those storms we endure are imperative to our growth as humans. They shape who we are and what we become.
I would hate to imagine the kind of person I would be had I not weathered those storms or been faced with things I initially believed I couldn’t handle.
While it may not seem like it when you’re in the trenches, it’s really important for sh*t to hit the fan every once in a while.
Here are the reasons why:
You Gain Perspective
When everything goes haywire, you will cry — a lot. You will sit down in the middle of your floor and sob big, heavy tears, and there will be a spot right in your core that will ache in the most painful way.
You will think this is truly the end, and it couldn’t possibly get any worse.
Then, there is that beautiful moment when the sun slowly creeps out from wherever it was hiding, and you feel like maybe you can take on the world.
Once you have felt all of your feels, there’s an invincible sense of “newness,” and you suddenly gain a clarity and perspective on your life you hadn’t had before. You realize the small stuff truly isn’t worth sweating.
Gratitude
It’s hard to truly appreciate the blessings in your life when you have no sense of scale on which to weigh them.
When things are bad, the things going well in your life are highlighted and become impossible to ignore.
You learn to appreciate the little things you may have overlooked before, and you realize how much you’ve taken for granted. Far too often it takes something tragic to make us appreciate the good.
You Find Out Who Your Friends Are
Tough times force you to reach out to your network of family and friends for support and guidance.
Asking for help is not always easy, but it shows you who is willing to sacrifice for you, even when it doesn’t directly benefit themselves.
You’ll notice some people have a way of conveniently being unavailable when you're going through it and somehow reappear after you’re back on your feet.
Delete, delete, delete those people!
You Are Creatively Inspired
We all know the best country songs come from a place of heartbreak, and some of the most famous artists have created their best works during their darkest moments (think Picasso’s Blue Period).
Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative type or an artist of any kind, there is something about being in a low place that inspires creativity and new ideas. How those ideas are channeled is up to you.
You Are Better Able To Empathize With Others
No matter how good of a friend you are, it’s tough to really empathize with others going through difficult times when you haven’t experienced any hardships of your own.
While it’s not always necessary to truly be able to say, “I know how you feel,” it helps you to better serve and encourage others when you have faced a struggle or two yourself.
You Realize Your Strength
As clichéd as it is, it’s true: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
The resiliency of the human spirit is truly amazing, and one of the most empowering feelings in life is surprising yourself.
You get a serious sense of power when you come out on the other side of a series of challenges you believed were simply too much for you to handle.
You emerge stronger than you went in, and you are that much more equipped to deal with whatever else may come your way in the future.
You Learn To Trust And Let Go
There comes a time in the midst of the storm when you realize you have very minimal control over things.
There is only so much planning and prepping that can occur before you realize it's time to let go and trust the dust will eventually settle and life will indeed go on.
It often takes a lot of hassle to get to that point, but when you do, it’s like the weight of the world has been lifted.
You are truly able to take a deep breath and say, “What is meant to be will be.” So much wisdom and strength comes from truly learning to trust and let go.
