Breakdown or Breakthrough?
A spiritual teacher once taught me that “crisis proceeds change.” The storm will come before you make a breakthrough. It always works this way.
When your world is crashing down around you, or it just feels that way, ask yourself: is there something you have been working toward, about to manifest? Is your life starting to reveal some changes, and are you holding on for dear life, to the old comfortable place?
Then pay attention:
OLD AND COMFORTABLE ARE NOT ALWAYS BETTER.
Remember the dreams that you longed for and prayed for? You could now be standing on one side of the dream river with another stuck in the old predictable place. The ol’ painful “one foot in, one foot out” routine. Be aware that this may be what is holding you back from the inevitable breakthrough. This calls for a dose of letting go. Surrender to the new; let go of the old.
Don’t hold onto the old for nostalgia’s sake. It will drag you down. Be weary of negative patterns and how comfortable they are, the longer you’ve indulged in them. To get out of that place that is causing resistance requires action. Take positive action TOWARD your dream, not away from it. Let go of the security blanket and learn to dance a new step.
TAKE POSITIVE RISKS
When you are not going through crisis, practice taking risks on your terms. Make goals and take action steps to meet those goals. If your scared to get out on the dance floor, take a dance lesson. If you’re a writer afraid of rejection, then pitch a story to a newspaper.
Don’t allow a meltdown to happen if it doesn’t work out. Look at it as practice. Experiment with life. Keep going.
SELF SOOTHING ROCKS
When you’re going through something fierce, don’t grind yourself into the ground or kick yourself when you are down. Be good to yourself instead. Take things that have been healthy forms of comfort for you, like walking the dog or drinking a glass of apple juice—and incorporate them more into your daily routine. Add some new ones: pick a new hobby or work on an existing one, learn new relaxation techniques. Nurture yourself with fun.
Most importantly, while traveling through the abyss, is to communicate, articulate and express your experience. Spend quality time around healthy supportive people. This will calm your ass down. You need to practice describing what you’re experiencing in real-time and express your emotions in order to ground your feelings, in order to not feel alone and in order to not lose your mind during the crisis.
GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD
Get out of your head by helping others. Volunteer at The American Red Cross or some other non-profit organization. Helping others will be like a shot of calm in your arm. It will make you feel warm and fuzzy. Seriously. Try teaching or mentoring someone. You will spend your time wisely because your crisis will vanish for a few minutes, and you will gain new perspective. It may be the time you need to surrender the old patterns. This can create a pathway for the breakthrough to happen.
DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
You have got to do something different in order to get a different result. If you walk down that same path of destruction, you’ll just manifest more of the same thing . You cannot put a cat’s tail on a rat’s ass. You cannot keep repeating the same storyline, thinking you’ll get a different ending. You won’t. You must do something different to reap a different kind of harvest.
KEEP ON TRUCKIN’
Whatever you do—keep on moving. Keep on taking action even when you think you have no steam left in you. Even if you don’t think you are heading in the right direction, if you run into a brick wall, simply pick yourself up and choose another direction and keep going. You will make it. You ARE making it. You’re closer than you think. Welcome to the world of breakthroughs!
