How Wisdom Helps Us Weather Life's Storms
Remember what you have already survived.
Distinguish between what you can and cannot control.
Allow yourself to lean on others.
Make room for experiences that restore you.
As we get older, life has a way of testing us. We experience losses, disappointments, health scares and illness, changes in relationships, professional uncertainties, and the painful realization that often not everything in our lives will unfold as we had imagined. Adversity does not politely step aside as we enter the second half of life. In fact, some of life's most difficult challenges arrive when we might have expected to be more settled. And yet, something interesting happens as we age: We often become better equipped to face these challenges.
This is not because we are less vulnerable, or because difficult experiences hurt any less, but rather because we have developed a skill that can be enormously protective: perspective. Perspective allows us to understand that a difficult moment is not necessarily a permanent position.
We begin to understand that a difficult moment is not necessarily a permanent state.
When we are younger, adversity often feels all-consuming. A professional setback, a relationship........
