Have you struggled with really awful experiences and wished they would quickly pass? Or cursed your strings of bad luck and wondered when the bad streak will ever end? What about the other end – have you ever let a great victory get into your head and made bad decisions? Consider the following story.
There’s a famous fable of an ancient powerful king. As powerful as he was, he often struggled with emotional highs and lows, and that had caused him heavily during critical moments in battles.
The King was prone to periods of great elation where he would make very poor decisions, and periods of great despair where he would get extremely upset.
One of the kingdom’s wise men created a ring for the King, a device that would help stop him from getting lost in his high and low moments.
The King asked, “How does it work?”
“Wear the ring with you always. In times when you need it most, it will show you the answer and you will know what to do.” replied the wise man.
Almost immediately, a horseman rode in and demanded to speak to the King.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! The kingdom is surrounded. We’re under attacked!”
The King and all his best men rode out to meet their enemies in the battlefield. They fought for a long time and it appeared that they would be defeated.
Everything seemed dark and hopeless, just when the tired King was about to surrender the ring suddenly shined and caught his attention.
Engraved on the ring was an illuminated message – four words which he did not see before: “This too shall pass.”
All of the sudden, the King found new hope, courage and a burst of energy out of nowhere and fought back with everything he had. His new strength inspired his men to fight like never before, like men possessed. Soon, the tide of the battle turned and they won.
The King returned to his city and threw a massive celebration for many days. Just when he was losing himself in the midst of a great feast, the ring shined and there was an illuminated message which drew his attention.
This time it said, “This too shall pass.”
Those four words woke the King up and returned him to his centered self. He came back to his senses, he returned to clarity, which had always been there inside of him.
Isn’t it interesting that when the King read the message, nothing in the external world changed but his thoughts? That alone changed his whole experience and the eventual outcome.
Terrible, catastrophic moments may cause you to be trapped in a negative spiral of thoughts and you may lose heart…but only for a while, if you let it. Recognize that in those moments, you are feeling the quality of your thoughts and THAT is your reality, not the external world. And those thoughts will surely pass like dark clouds making way for new light to pierce through. Remember: “This too shall pass.” The external circumstances may be the same, but you now live it differently, and therefore, create a different outcome.
In the same way, don’t get too carried away by great triumphant moments. Go ahead, celebrate and indulge in those “feel-good” moments. As long as you do that with a clear head without letting your successes blind you, you’ll be alright. And remember: “This too shall pass.”
It’s not that you should not feel anything and disregard the emotional part of you, it’s just that when you’re aware of where your experiences come from, the false feelings simply fall away. Your feelings is an excellent barometer that tells you the quality of your thinking. If you remain in the gentle awareness of the illusory nature of your thought-generated reality, you’ll be alright. You’ll not lose clarity of what to do in the moment.
There was once a great success coach, and his grandfather once gave him two excellent advice: “When you experience a crushing defeat, failure or make a huge mistake, go ahead and let out your emotions: shout, scream, cry, do whatever you want….for 15 minutes. Then shut up, and get on with it!” and “When you accomplish a great victory, go ahead and celebrate: shout, scream, sing, dance, do whatever you want….for 15 minutes. Then shut up, and get on with it!”
I thought those were great advice!
“If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” ~ Syd Banks
Reference:
https://coaching-journey.com/coaching-story-this-too-shall-pass/
