Blog : Lobster story

The crisis we have been experiencing for the past year is putting a severe strain on our ability to adapt and is increasing the mental load on everyone. In a note published at the end of 2020, the WHO warned about what it calls "pandemic fatigue" and the states of anxiety and depression it engenders.

The philosopher Hannah Arendt, who fought for her survival during World War II, reminds us that "a crisis only becomes catastrophic if we respond to it with prefabricated ideas". So crises invite us to loosen our mental rigidities and open ourselves to new ways of thinking and acting in the world. To understand this better, let's look at seafood, especially lobster.

Lobsters grow throughout their lives, but not their shells. Lobsters grow in stages and are only able to do so because of their ability to repeatedly make a new shell. When it feels too tight, the lobster takes refuge under a rock, away from predators, to molt. There is still time for her new shell to be as tough and resilient as her old one. In its new shell, it finds space, comfort, growth and new opportunities. Until the shell becomes too small, uncomfortable and even painful. The lobster will crawl back under a rock to change its shell.

The life of the lobster teaches us that any transition is stimulated by situations of change, uncomfortable or not. The stress and vulnerability that accompany these periods can be perceived negatively or as a useful way to evolve, to discover new territories and new opportunities. The discomfort of the mental load is a signal that informs you that it is time to make a change in your level of consciousness to make changes in your life. If you look for a quick fix by eliminating the discomfort, you eliminate the messenger and therefore opportunities for change.

The story of the lobster is a metaphor for our lives. Life is movement. Mental charge offers us a space, an opportunity to reinvent our ways of doing or being. It is an opportunity to be seized.