I never cared much about how lobsters grow and maybe you didn’t either.
But this story by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, a brilliant Psychiatrist and Torah scholar made me curious.
It changed how I saw struggles, and I have shared it with many since then.
Now, I am sharing here it with you.
The Lobster Story.
It turns out, lobsters are soft creatures living inside hard shells.
The problem is, their shells do not grow.
So how does a lobster get bigger?
As the lobster grows, the shell starts feeling tight. It gets uncomfortable and feels pressure. The lobster hides under rocks to stay safe, sheds its shell, and forms a new one.
But this does not happen just once.
As it keeps growing, the new shell also becomes tight. Again, the lobster feels pressure. Again, it sheds its shell. This happens many times in its life.
The lobster only grows when it feels uncomfortable.
Now, imagine if lobsters had doctors.
The moment they felt discomfort, they would take medicine to feel better. They would never shed their shells. They would never grow.
It is the same with us.
When we feel stress or discomfort, it is a sign that we are growing. It is a chance to become stronger. If we avoid discomfort, we stay stuck.
Rabbi Twerski’s story teaches us that struggles are not bad. They are signals for growth. If we face them, we come out stronger, just like the lobster.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: David Clode on Unsplash
