Take changes in your stride to withstand stormy moments

There is a very interesting tale from the Jewish wisdom folklore. King Solomon always got complaints from his staff that he was favouring one of his staff, Benaiah, over all of them.

Though Solomon was very fond of Benaiah because he was very knowledgeable and also very honest in his duty, he never favoured him over others.

But having received so many complaints, he wanted to address the matter a little differently. He summoned his key staff and told them about a magical ring he had heard about.

Everyone was so puzzled when King Solomon told them that the ring had magical powers that when a sad person gazes upon it, they become happy. But when a happy person gazes upon it, they become sad. Having described the ring, King Solomon ordered all the staff to go around the Kingdom and find this ring and bring it to him. He also put a condition that they had to find this magical ring and be back by Sukkot, a Jewish festival so he could wear the ring that day. Solomon, all the ministers and Benaiah knew that no such ring existed, but none of them wanted to lose an opportunity to impress the king.

No one including, Benaiah knew where to start looking for it but began going around the entire kingdom. They met different people across all walks of life and enquired about the ring. But no one had ever heard about this and so nothing much came out of the long tours around the kingdom. Having met all the merchants who made the most expensive rings and yet not finding any such ring, everyone was ready to give up and tell the king that no such ring existed at least in their kingdom. But Benaiah did not want to give up. He went looking around, when he finally chanced around a merchant selling junk. He wanted to look in there too. And as they were looking through the pile of junk, Benaiah’s eye fell on a small piece of object that read "Gam Zeh Ya'avor." Which when translated to English says, "This too shall pass". He immediately knew this is the closest to what the King was looking for.

All the staff returned to the kingdom. They presented the king with the most precious rings and gifts picked from all over the kingdom but that is not what the king was looking for. Benaiah presented the king with a ring that had the words, “This too shall pass” inscribed. King Solomon was in awe. Solomon realised that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power that he had would be nothing but dust one day. At the same time, no trouble of his would ever be forever.

Nothing is permanent: Everything in life is temporary. Emotions, people, troubles and fears all tend to change, so there is no point in being stressed over them. Do your best and leave things that are not in your control.

Everything is bound to change. You never know what’s good or bad: They say the bad news is that nothing lasts forever, but the good news is “nothing lasts forever too”, so regret nothing, take changes in your stride and learn to grow with every challenge

Embrace change: You don’t have to be the strongest or the most powerful to withstand the vagaries of life, you just need to the most flexible who can embrace change and adapt yourself to what your situation demands