We’ve all heard the saying, “Calm before the storm.”
But what about the calm after the storm?
What about finding peace when the winds have howled, the waters have risen, and your world has been shaken to its core?
Over the past few weeks, I’ve found that living in a place of peace after living through a hurricane, whether literal or figurative, isn’t easy.
But it’s possible.
And it’s essential.
Finding Peace Takes Practice
Hurricanes, like any life storm, have a way of rattling everything.
They strip away comfort, security, and even a bit of our sense of self.
When the wind howls outside your window, there’s a deep fear that creeps in, one that makes you question how much control you really have.
Spoiler alert: not much.
And there’s the lesson—peace isn’t about control.
So, how do you live in peace when everything has been disrupted?
When you’ve just come through the eye of the storm, and debris—both physical and emotional—is scattered all around you?
First, you breathe.
Not just the shallow, automatic breaths we take without thinking.
But the kind of deep, intentional breathing that reminds your body and soul that you’re still here.
That the storm passed, and you made it through.
Inhale peace, exhale tension.
Keep repeating until your heartbeat slows and your mind stops racing.
Next, look around. Really look.
What’s left standing?
What remains, even after the winds tore through your life?
Maybe it’s a friendship that grew stronger in the storm’s intensity.
Maybe it’s your resilience, your ability to stand firm even when everything else seemed to crumble.
Storms strip away the unnecessary, and what’s left is the stuff that matters.
Focus on that.
The foundation that remains is what will carry you forward.
Peace Is a Choice
Finding peace is not about pretending everything’s fine when it’s not.
It’s not about plastering a smile on your face and ignoring the damage.
Instead, it’s about accepting what happened and choosing to move forward anyway.
Peace, after all, isn’t passive—it’s active.
It’s a conscious choice we make to lean into the quiet after the storm.
It’s deciding not to carry the chaos of the hurricane with us but to let it go with the wind that brought it.
One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned is that peace isn’t dependent on our circumstances.
If we wait for everything to be “perfect” or calm on the outside, we’ll be waiting forever.
Instead, peace is an internal state, one that we can cultivate, even in the face of wreckage.
It’s something we can choose, even when everything around us is in chaos.
Peace Is Found in the Stillness
After the storm passes, there’s a stillness that settles.
It’s in that stillness where peace resides, waiting for us to notice it.
Sometimes, we’re so focused on cleaning up the mess or repairing what’s broken that we miss it.
But peace is there in the small moments—the sunrise after the stormy night, the neighbor who checks on you, the cup of coffee you sip as you look out at the blue sky.
It’s in the simple, everyday things that we often overlook.
When the storms come, they are loud, chaotic, and threatening. But if we can sit squarely in the eye of the storm, there is peace to be found there.
This is the lesson I learned through Hurricane Milton. Our home was literally in the eye of the storm.
And in the eye of the storm, there was stillness.
It was being in the eye of the storm that actually saved us from greater destruction.
So, if your storm continues to rage, find your center and allow yourself to be still.
In that stillness, you can find peace even while the storm rages around you.
Peace Is About Surrendering
And finally, peace comes when we accept that we’re not in control.
Hurricanes remind us of that more than anything else.
We can prepare, we can board up windows, we can hunker down, but we can’t stop the storm.
The same goes for the storms in life.
There will always be things beyond our control, and the sooner we accept that the sooner we’ll find peace.
Living in a place of peace after a storm is about surrender.
It’s about trusting that no matter how fierce the winds were, no matter how much was lost or shaken, you are still here.
You are standing in the aftermath, and that is something to be deeply grateful for.
Peace comes from gratitude, from looking around at what remains and choosing to see the beauty in it, however small or battered it may seem.
Live Your Life in a Place of Peace
I have learned a lot from the hurricanes I have weathered.
We can all learn valuable lessons as we let the storms teach us.
So, let your storm teach you.
Let it remind you of your strength, your resilience, and your capacity to rebuild.
Let it show you that peace isn’t found in the absence of storms.
It is found in your ability to find stillness, even when everything around you swirls in chaos.
And as you rebuild—whether it’s your home, your heart, or your sense of self—do so from a place of peace.
Because once you learn to find peace after the storm, you’ll carry it with you into every season, no matter what winds may come your way.
This is the most important lesson I have learned from this year’s devastating hurricanes.
Even in the eye of the storm, there can be stillness and peace.
All you have to do is find it there.
