Lobsters & stress

Did you know that we can learn something about stress from a lobster?

In a YouTube video, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski shares how a lobster can teach us how to learn from adversity. It involves learning to live with discomfort!

When the soft inside part of a lobster grows, the outer shell does not grow. That remains rigid. So a lobster goes under a rock to stay safe from predators and there it sheds its rigid shell. What an uncomfortable and vulnerable thing to do—to let go of the shell that stands between it and predators! But after the lobster sheds its shell, it grows a new one. The process repeats as the lobster grows.

The lesson Twerski teases out for us is that times of stress can be the impetus for growth. If we can live with some discomfort, we can experience growth. Perhaps that means we don't always need to reach so rapidly for relief for our discomfort. Lean into it a while and see what lessons are there.

For me, the lesson also involves learning to be vulnerable (losing some of my protective coating). Through that vulnerability can come huge transformational advances—real growth.

Who ever thought a lobster could teach us something? Next time you experience the uncomfortability of stress, picture the lobster going under a rock and facing the stress of life without its shell so that it can grow a new one. And take heart!