The Gift of Crisis

      

By Barbara Berger

Barbara Berger Feeling overwhelmed? Stressed? Feeling sometimes or often that Life is just too much. Having difficulty coping with situations, with certain people, your work situation, or your health…? There are many varieties when it comes to feeling that we are in “crisis” mode. But if you are feeling that you’re in crisis, here are some things you might want to consider: To begin with, let’s just consider what’s really going on. In other words, we might want to consider what is the true meaning of what we call crisis? Or to say it in another way, we might want to ask ourselves what actually is the gift of whatever is going on with us? What is the gift of this particular situation or this particular crisis? When the beauty of inner work starts to unfold for us, we often discover the true meaning of the challenges we face. Sometimes I like to say what would we do without our crises? Or – who would we be if we never met a good crisis? Just think about it. Without our crises, most of us would never grow or develop! We’d just stay stuck in our little ruts and continue to be distracted by all the trivialities around us. But fortunately, most of us are blessed with crisis – that wonderful magic wand of change – that either nudges us gently or kicks us in the butt, forcing us to ask questions and perhaps even to wake up! When we look at it this way, we can see that crisis is a warning bell, an alarm signal, a sign that something we are thinking or doing is preventing us from experiencing the happiness that is our true nature and birthright. So it might be worthwhile to take a deeper look at what’s going on. And here’s another interesting thing about crisis. When we are young and inexperienced, we have a tendency to be terrified when we find ourselves in crisis especially if we have not been taught the value of crisis or how to investigate our reactions and our thinking. Then as life goes on and we survive one or several major crises, we mature and begin to understand that we can probably deal with crisis and that we probably will survive! We may even discover that what we once thought of as a crisis is really nothing more than our own catastrophic thinking which causes us to react so intensely to things, people and events that are quite simply beyond our control! Another good thing to ask yourself if you feel you are in crisis is this: Is what I am calling a crisis just me resisting what is? Is it just me being at war with reality? Am I trying to change people or events which I cannot change? If you discover that this is actually true – that this is what is going on with you, this will change your whole way of relating to and dealing with whatever is going on in your life. Then instead of running from what is going on – in other words instead of trying to run away from the crisis and/or our anxious feelings, we can learn to stand quietly and take a good look at what’s going on. When we do this, we discover that when we shine the light of awareness and the power of our presence on the situation or events which we call a crisis, amazing things begin to happen. And things begin to calm down because we’ve begun to calm down. When we consider whatever is going on from these various points of view, we really have to ask ourselves – what, in fact, our definition of crisis is? What do we actually mean by this word? When we try to define it, we discover it’s not so easy to define is it? Because this question leads us back to our own arbitrary standards and stories about what it takes to live a happy life. Without these arbitrary standards and stories, it’s pretty difficult to have a crisis. In fact we find that it’s almost impossible to have a crisis without having certain ideas or expectations as to what it takes to live a good life. When we look at it like this, we discover that a “crisis” doesn’t have so much to do with the actual events or experiences, but rather to how we respond to these events or experiences. It’s interesting to contemplate, isn’t it? So here’s what I’ve discovered: Without our stories and unrealistic expectations to life, when new, unexpected or so-called “difficult” situations arise, it suddenly becomes harder to be upset or troubled by these events or to be “in crisis” mode about them. Instead, we can begin to look at our thoughts and beliefs and at how we are interpreting these situations, people and events. And when we do this, the experience is more like – Oh well this is interesting! Or – What am I supposed to do here? Or – What am I supposed to learn here? Or – What’s this all about? Then so-called “crises” become “challenges” or interesting experiences or adventures which are all part of our life’s journey and part of our learning process and part of our soul evolution. When we begin to view things like this, then it’s much easier to sit back and relax a little and see what happens. _____ About Barbara Berger American-born Barbara Berger is the best-selling author of “The Road to Power – Fast Food for the Soul” (published in 30 languages), “Are You Happy Now? 10 Ways to Live a Happy Life” (published in 21 languages) and “The Awakening Human Being – A Guide to the Power of Mind”. Barbara's latest book is "Find and Follow Your Inner Compass – Instant Guidance in an Age of Information Overload". All her books are available on Amazon.com or on her Web site. Barbara also works as coach, helping people around the globe come into alignment with their own true power. For more about Barbara see her Web site: http://www.beamteam.com