Today I Choose to be Transcended – How to be Transcended

When a Storm Teaches You About Rising Above

It had been one of those days that felt like it was designed to test every limit I had. Work crises multiplying faster than I could address them, deadlines converging like a perfect storm of stress, the kind of day when each completed task seemed to spawn three more urgent problems. My nervous system was in full activation mode, running on adrenaline and caffeine and the grim determination to just make it through.

Then the actual storm arrived.

I stepped onto the porch to check the weather and found myself face-to-face with nature’s own version of chaos: wind bending trees at impossible angles, rain moving horizontally across the landscape, lightning illuminating a sky that seemed to be having its own crisis. And something unexpected happened as I watched this meteorological drama unfold.

I felt blissful.

Not despite the storm, but because of it. Sitting there watching uncertainty manifest in wind and water, I discovered that transcendence isn’t about escaping difficult circumstances – it’s about finding the peace that exists at the center of them.

The Eye of Your Own Storm

There I was, in the middle of a chaotic work day, watching literal chaos unfold in front of me, and for the first time all day I felt completely calm. The storm outside somehow created perspective on the storm inside my work life. Both were temporary. Both were bigger than my ability to control them. Both would pass.

But only one of them was beautiful.

Watching the storm reminded me that there’s a difference between being in difficult circumstances and being consumed by them. The trees were bending but not breaking. The rain was intense but nourishing. The lightning was dramatic but brief. Nature was demonstrating how to be fully present to intensity without being destroyed by it.

This is what transcendence actually looks like: not floating above your problems, but finding the stillness that exists within them.

The Paradox of Embracing Uncertainty

What struck me most about that moment of storm-watching bliss was how much peace I found in uncertainty itself. I couldn’t predict when the storm would end, how severe it would get, or what the aftermath would look like. And instead of that uncertainty creating more anxiety, it somehow created relief.

The storm was completely beyond my influence or control, which made it utterly pointless to worry about it. I could only witness it, experience it, and trust that it would follow its own natural course. This surrender to what I couldn’t control freed up all the energy I’d been spending trying to control what was equally uncontrollable in my work life.

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s research on mindfulness reveals that acceptance of uncertainty actually reduces stress and increases resilience. When we stop fighting against unpredictability and start working with it, we access a kind of peace that’s available even in chaotic circumstances.

Nature as Transcendence Teacher

The storm became my teacher in real-time transcendence practice. Nature doesn’t resist its own processes – it moves through them with complete presence and acceptance. The wind doesn’t apologize for being strong. The rain doesn’t worry about being too intense. The lightning doesn’t second-guess its timing.

Watching this natural acceptance of intensity taught me something profound about my own relationship to difficult days. I’d been resisting the chaos of my work life, fighting against the stress instead of moving through it with the same natural grace the storm was demonstrating.

Transcendence isn’t about levitating above your circumstances – it’s about finding the natural rhythm within them, the eye of calm that exists at the center of every storm, the peace that’s available when you stop fighting what is and start flowing with it.

The Bliss of Full Presence

That moment of storm-watching bliss came from being completely present to what was happening rather than thinking about what should be happening. For probably the first time all day, I wasn’t mentally juggling multiple problems or rehearsing conversations or planning next steps. I was simply witnessing the beautiful chaos unfolding in front of me.

This total presence created an unexpected side effect: the work problems that had felt so urgent and overwhelming suddenly seemed much more manageable. Not because they’d changed, but because I’d transcended the anxiety spiral that had been amplifying their difficulty.

Transcendence often works this way – it doesn’t eliminate problems, but it changes your relationship to them. When you’re no longer consumed by anxiety about circumstances, you have more mental and emotional resources available for actually addressing them.

The Practice of Storm Wisdom

Since that revelatory storm-watching experience, I’ve tried to apply storm wisdom to other chaotic situations in my life. When work gets overwhelming, I remember how peaceful it felt to watch intensity without needing to control it. When relationships get complicated, I recall how the storm moved through its natural course without my intervention.

**Accept What You Cannot Control** – Like weather, many life circumstances are beyond your influence. Fighting them wastes energy that could be used more productively.

**Find Beauty in Chaos** – Even difficult situations often contain elements of beauty, growth, or meaning that become visible when you stop resisting long enough to look for them.

**Practice Presence During Intensity** – The most transcendent moments often occur when you’re fully present to challenging circumstances rather than trying to escape them.

**Trust Natural Rhythms** – Just as storms have their own timing and intensity cycles, so do most life challenges. They arise, peak, and naturally subside.

Transcendence in the Everyday

The storm taught me that transcendence isn’t reserved for meditation retreats or spiritual mountaintop experiences. It’s available in the middle of your worst work day, during family conflicts, in the midst of health crises or financial stress. It’s the peace that becomes accessible when you stop demanding that circumstances be different and start being fully present to what they actually are.

This doesn’t mean becoming passive or accepting harmful situations without trying to improve them. It means finding the calm center from which you can respond skillfully rather than react frantically to whatever storms are currently moving through your life.

The Compound Effect of Storm Presence

That single experience of storm-watching bliss created a reference point I can return to during other difficult days. When work feels chaotic, I remember the peace I found watching actual chaos and try to bring that same quality of presence to whatever crisis is currently demanding my attention.

The memory of transcendent calm in the middle of literal and metaphorical storms has become a portable tool for accessing that same state in other challenging circumstances. Transcendence, I learned, isn’t a destination you reach but a perspective you can practice.

Today I Choose to Find the Center

Today, I choose to be transcended not by escaping difficult circumstances, but by finding the peace that exists within them. I choose to remember that bliss can coexist with chaos, that presence can transform any experience, that transcendence is available in the middle of storms rather than only after they pass.

I choose to trust that every challenging situation contains its own teaching about how to move through difficulty with grace, how to find beauty in uncertainty, how to access calm in the center of chaos.

Because sometimes the most transcendent thing you can do is sit on your porch in the middle of a storm and discover that peace isn’t about having perfect conditions – it’s about being fully present to whatever conditions you have.

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