Humans by their sheer nature crave safety, predictability and a certain sense of ease in everything. Comfort is not a luxury today, rather a routine. Comfort or being comfortable in life seems to be the end goal. But the truth is that paradox overpowers predictions. Life is beyond predictions, presumptions, assumptions and forecasts. One such paradox is that comfort brings crisis and crisis breeds comfort. This cycle of comfort and crisis plays across the entire life, be it in relationships, work or personal emotions. This dance of comfort and crisis is not only intellectually challenging but also enhances our emotional resilience, thinking and self growth. Just like dance as an exercise challenges our body to perform new steps, movements, expressions and coordination, the comfort-crisis dance also tunes our brain and heart to coordinate on a level of adaptability, mental resilience, and agility to respond to new circumstances.

 

When the tsunami of crisis hits life, it tosses, tumbles, flips and churns us on a collective or a personal level. We jump into action and suddenly oscillate between fight and flight mode. The brain is suddenly rewired to decide new priorities, rethink what matters the most, gather mental strength and form more meaningful deeper bonds. So while you are hitting the rock bottom, the only way left is to go up and this crisis forces you to strip ego,emotional biases and makes you face the harsh reality. What follows this is clarity, purpose and gratefulness. Scenarios of crisis make one face the mirror of the harsh realities, but also make you see who are standing behind you while you face these realities. These are the people who are standing like strong rocks when you have hit your rock bottom.

 

The mirror also lays bare the enemies disguised as friends. Nature has a beautiful way of conveying meaningful lessons, one such example being that of a pearl and diamonds. A pearl begins when a grain of sand or parasite gets trapped inside an oyster’s shell. In response to this irritation, the oyster secretes layers of nacre (mother-of-pearl) over the intruder. Over time, this response to discomfort creates a lustrous, beautiful pearl. One has to understand that it is not comfort, but discomfort that gives birth to something treasured. In a whirlwind of crisis, what brings calm in the chaos are the people, self reflection, acceptance and emotional resilience. Slowly, one realises that crisis is the architect of strength. When life sends a sandstorm that gets lodged within the comfort shell we live in, it compels us to shed layers of false identity, biases and illusions. In that very discomfort, we begin crafting a luminous necklace-strung with pearls of wisdom, shaped by friction and truth. By Anika Santani