How To Move Past Your Pain

I wanted to talk today about how to get past your challenges, or in other words, how to weather the storm, how to get past the storm.

Now, storms are something we don’t necessarily want to see in our lives or in nature. They have destructive capabilities. They destroy property, and sometimes they even cause a loss of life.

Now, the storms in our lives are the challenges that come up. Now, the challenges or storms in our lives can be short or they can be long in duration. They can be mild or they can be severe, but know that the storms will come. The challenges will come in our lives.

I just got back from a vacation. It was a very active vacation. 

The first part of my vacation was in Norway. We went there for a ceremony to lay to rest, the ashes of my wife’s grandmother who just passed away about four or five months ago, two weeks shy of her 105th birthday.

So it really was a celebration of life. She was the true matriarch of the family and she will be greatly missed. 

We went to Norway for only three days because, originally, we didn’t think we could go, but we didn’t want to miss the ceremony.

So we went to Bergen, Norway.  That’s where the family cemetery was and that’s where Grethe grew up. And, Greta, you will be greatly missed!

So obviously you can see my wife’s side of the family is Norwegian and I’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to go to Norway numerous times.

And we’ve been to Bergen several times and we always love to go there because it’s got the heritage of my wife’s family growing up there. And, it’s such a beautiful city and, and it’s surrounded by seven small mountains that creates this amazing atmosphere of mountains just directly right out of the city, almost growing right out of the city.

But it also creates this weather system where the moisture just sits in between the mountains, right in the area of Bergen because it’s right on the north sea. And it creates this weather system that they get a lot of rain, kind of similar to Seattle in the United States.

Now, my wife and I love to hike. So whenever we’re in Bergen, we always make sure that we get up into the mountains surrounding Bergen and go for a good day hike. And we felt it was even more appropriate on the week of the ceremony for my wife’s grandmother, Grethe.

So we took the cable car up to the top of this small mountain called Ulriken. And we hiked from there and we went for a good three to four hour hike where we hiked back from where the cable car takes you up and hiked down a path to come all the way down the mountain. And then we could take a bus back to the city.

So in true Bergen fashion, there was a lot of rain while we were there and now don’t get me wrong; we’ve had beautiful weather; absolutely beautiful weather, when we’ve been there in the past, but this was kind of classic Bergen weather, where it was raining on and off almost every day.

And you have to make sure you’re prepared. So the Norwegians have this great saying, and the saying is…

“There is no bad weather.  There is only bad clothing.”

Should I even try this in the Norwegian? The Norwegian version of it is…

“Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, Bare dårlige klær”

So, if you are watch the video, forgive my pronunciation on that, but again, that’s translated,… There is no bad weather. There is only bad clothing,

But the meaning of that is that you need to be prepared for any situation.

So very often, if you’re not prepared and you go to Bergen, you’ll see people who are not Norwegian, who will come out of the mountains extremely soggy and wet because they didn’t realize that it could rain because when they started their hike, it was beautiful sun.

And very often, the weather can shift very quickly and before you know it, you’re hiking in the rain.  But if you brought your clothes with you or you brought your proper gear with you, you’re prepared for it, you put a quick change on and you stay dry.

If the Norwegian’s waited for a time where there would be perfectly clear weather for a long period of time to do anything, then they might not get anything done.

So they decided to be prepared and have the gear that they need to get out and do whatever they need to do despite the rain or despite the storms.

This is a metaphor for life as well. Because as I said before, the storms will come into our lives. The challenges will be there. Sometimes they are literal storms, storms in nature that can destroy our property, possibly even loss of life or the storms can be challenges in our lives.

Remember they can be short or long and duration. They can be mild or they can be severe, but there is no doubt that challenges will come. We can be sure of that. 

But it is how we respond to the challenge; How do we respond to the storm, to the problem… That is the key.

But the problem is is that when you’re so focused on the storm, you’re focused on the problem or the challenge that you cannot get past it.

Morris west said, …

“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.”

That happens so much in our lives.  We’re so worried about something that could happen, that hasn’t happened yet, or we’re so worried about the actual problem or the challenge that’s happening in our lives that we can’t see past the challenge.

We can’t focus on the goal or the drive or the desire to get past that challenge, to get past that storm in our lives.

And remember, some storms or challenges in our lives are long in duration. And sometimes it seems like it will never end, but you have to learn how to move forward. Despite the challenge, despite the problem, despite the storm.

So instead of being fixated on the problem or the challenge or the storm, instead focus on getting through the storm no matter what. 

Set your sights on your goals for what you want to accomplish. And this will allow you to get through the problem, get through the challenge, get through the storm and weather the storm.

Then you can approach any challenge, no matter what it is.

Leonardo DaVinci said, …

“Fix your course on a star and you will be able to navigate any storm.”

Amelia bar said, …

“It is only in sorrow, that bad weather masters, us. In joy, We face the storm and defy it.”

So on the second half of my vacation, I was down at the shore in North Carolina, a  beautiful place called Holden beach.

And we were celebrating my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. And we had 45 of us there in five different houses. I know amazing. And I am extremely fortunate to have an amazing family and we really cherish getting together and it was quite a week.

Now, there was kind of stormy weather while we were there. There was an average of anywhere from 20 to 40 mile an hour gusts and constant wind that was there the whole week. The whole week from Sunday to the following Saturday.  Excuse me, the wind died down just as we were leaving on that Saturday. So it wasn’t exactly great beach weather.

The constant wind the whole week, the sea was rough or as they say, “the sea was angry that day, my friends”.

Well, it was angry that whole week and we really couldn’t go swimming too much at all.

So very often people would say, “You know what? this vacation is a bust. We’ll just sit inside the house all day and we’ll do something else”, but we didn’t do that.

We made the best of the situation where we figured out what we could do on this day with the high winds. Can we sit out on our chairs? Could we go for long walks? Could we wade in the water if it wasn’t too rough and we made it work.

But it’s so easy in life to get fixated on the negative.  To get fixated on the problem or the challenge and get mired down in the “woe is me” of what’s going on.

OR,… you can decide how you are going to get through the current situation and make the most of it and not have it be a difficult situation, but turn it around to be a positive and to make the best out of the stormy situation or the challenge and get through. 

Not only getting through, but being triumphant.

So remember, life is full of challenges that will test you and it will test your faith in yourself.

The storms will come, they always do.

The challenges will always come.

We cannot change the fact that they’re coming.

But, what we CAN change and what we can control is how we respond to the challenges that happen to us in our lives.

So, my challenge to you today is… how will you respond to the challenges in your life?

How will you respond to the problems that arise, the storms that are present in your life?

Will you be fixated on the storm or will you set and be focused on the goals that you have in life that will get you past any challenge that you see.

So just a little food for thought this week

Well I hope this information helped you in your day.

Have a wonderful Week!

Be Positive, Be Motivated, Be Focused and Be Well,

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