5 minutes can bring you calm and peace to solve all of your problems. The Ocean began to speak and I listened.
All I Learned From The Ocean.
I recently spent some time staring at the ocean. I have done that many times over my life and the ocean never ceases to hypnotize me. It has the power to support life and destroy life, to create fun and pleasure and heart ache and sorrow. Thus goes the roller coaster of life, like the waves of the ocean. Sometimes the bumps are small and other times they are tsunami’s. Even the richest person didn’t get there without some trouble. Even the most peaceful person had turbulence in their life otherwise how would you know what peace was? You can’t avoid stress, but what you can do is let it roll through you like the ocean.
“If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this:
Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.” -Ann Landers
If you ever go body surfing and spend anytime in a wave you realize a few things quickly.
#1 Don’t fight the ocean
After the wave dumps you and you remain stiff and struggle for the surface you are going to get hurt. If you let your body be loose and flow with the water the energy of the wave will pass through you and your body will wiggle and shake but you won’t get hurt. Once the wave passes you can easily swim to the surface.
#2 Don’t fight the ocean
Let’s say you want to swim towards the beach and you are Michael Phelps. He is a pretty good swimmer. If you get caught in a rip tide and the ocean decides you don’t need to go to the beach it will pull you farther away no matter how strong you are. If you swim straight against a rip tide, you lose. Think of it as swimming straight into trouble. You can’t deny that there is a problem, because you are in it. You probably swam into it without even realizing it. You need to swim sideways until the current is small enough to overcome.
Some problems can be tackled head on, but large problems often require a more subtle approach. If a large problem develops and your mind is racing and you are panicking you can’t see clearly and you are wasting precious energy. Stress and busyness are distractions for the mind. After a week of sitting by the ocean I noticed one thing. People are in a real hurry to get somewhere.
Project to fix stress and busyness
Go get some sand / dirt and put it a jar and add water. Screw the top on and give it a shake. Cloudy right! Keep shaking it until it settles. Come on shake it harder. Just shake it in one direction so the sand will settle.
Not happening, right! Put the jar down and let it sit for a few hours. It will settle all by itself. Your mind works the same way. You can’t ask your mind to do a million tasks and expect it to perform flawlessly in a stressful situation. The calm mind can be focused and solve problems very well. I always knew I had rocks in my head. The easiest way I have found to be at peace with the world around me is to sit and do nothing. I know it sounds obvious, but try it. Let the sand in your mind settle. Sit and listen to your breathing for 5 minutes.
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