I was watching a live video on Instagram by Mel Robbins the other day. She shared a great analogy during the video on what’s we need to do during this turbulent time.
The analogy comes from the book Untamed by Glennon Doyle. In the book, Glennon shares that during her divorce, she called a friend to get advice. That friend was Liz Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love, anyone?) and Liz shared the below plane analogy for navigating the divorce. Mel applies it to where we are today and this turbulent time we’re navigating. What she said in her live is included below.
“Consider that right now we’re on an airplane and there is severe turbulence. And there’s nothing worse than being on an airplane with severe turbulence. It’s very discombobulating. ‘When are we going to be through it? When is it going to end? When will we level out this plane? When will we stop bouncing around? When? When? When? What if this? What if that?’
Did you know one of the most powerful things that helps you get through a very turbulent run in an airplane? It’s the pilots and stewards? If they are calm, and if they are previewing what’s coming like saying ‘We’re going through a patch of turbulence, it’s going to last 5 minutes’, ‘We’re searching for calmer air’, ‘We will still land in Chicago as planned, right now it will be bumpy’ then we are calm. If you see a calm steward and calm pilot previewing what you can expect in a calm, proactive, positive way, you start to internalize – ‘oh this is momentary and we’re going to get through this’.
That’s my job in your life right now. That’s also my job in my family’s lives. To preview what’s coming. To be calm, and caring, measured, and positive. And to hold room for the up and down emotions that will rise as you’re going through turbulence.It may feel like things are crashing but we’re not going to crash. We’re going to land in Chicago as planned. And you’re going to get off this plane as planned. And you’re going to be better and stronger and more positive. And we’re going to share the strategies and tools we are using with each other along the way.”
Friends – We are not going to crash. We are going through turbulence and it may last longer than we anticipate. Plan for this. It may be long, but we are prepared. We are searching for calmer air in this process. We are sharing strategies and tools with each other. And we are going to land safely on the other side of this. And we will be stronger because of it.
