the internal switch

When we come across overwhelming challenges, we feel scattered and occasionally weak. When we hit the rock bottom and find ourselves buried under the debris of our fallen life, and when we don’t see any sign of progress no matter how much we try, we feel we may never get out of this mess and will be trapped until the end. But we underestimate our true power and our mightiness.

There’s a giant, a beast, a superhero within us. In our daily lives, there are very few occasions when we get to rendezvous with it. But when we are pushed against the wall and crushed by challenges that life throws at us, that’s when we go through this internal switch — we transform from a victim to a victor.

A great depiction of this internal switch is a sequence from the movie Spider-Man: Homecoming where Peter Parker gets buried under fallen concrete and rubble, and he almost feels that he is powerless and can’t remove himself from this trap. But that’s when the internal switch happens and he musters the courage and strength to overcome this burden that’s upon him and rise from it throwing the broken concrete away. He realizes that he doesn’t need a suit to transform himself into a superhero, he’s already one with or without it.   

It’s unfortunate but all of us are powerful beyond our thinking, but we still live as victims until some catastrophe hits us where we get the opportunity to explore the latent courage and strength within us. Some of us go through this internal switch once, and some go through it again and again, and unless we go through it, we’ll never be able to identify and live our potential.

We don’t have to wait for a calamity or catastrophe to strike us to embrace the power within us. We need to believe that there’s a mighty beast exuding greatness living within us. We have courage and strength beyond measure within us, we just need to start exploring it.

As we face life’s challenges and winters, we may feel subdued and powerless, but that’s when we need to become cognizant of the giant within us. Instead of running away from challenges, we need to face them head on and overpower them. Instead of fearing fear and getting overwhelmed by the unknown, we need to muster the superhuman strength within us and fight a good fight.