by Dona Lyman
Many times in life, things seem to be humming along. The job is going well, the family is doing well, and you seem to be on top of everything that needs to get done. Things are flowing very nicely, life is happening exactly as you think it should, and, all is well in your world. But, there are times when life will throw up the “under construction” sign without any notice at all and have you feeling like you have run smack dab into the middle of a really big brick wall. What can you do to get rid of the “big brick wall” syndrome?
First, take a deep, cleansing breath and take a step back. Look at the situation as you were an outsider looking in. Yes, you could consider yourself a sort of a “peeping tom” of your own life. When we are in the middle of a crisis or are feeling stuck, we tend to perpetuate in this chaos. It’s very hard to see our way out and the deeper we look into it, the further we get pulled in. It’s like a well. The more we reach over to look in, the greater our chances are of falling. And if we fall in, it can be very difficult, and often a long and arduous process to get out of. But, if we can calm our thoughts for a moment and remove the emotions that we have attached to the situation, and step back from the well, we can look at our current condition from a higher state of mind. We can then move from being reactive to being proactive.
Second, look at the situation at hand objectively and stop trying to control something that can’t be controlled. When we are calm, we become clear. When we are clear, we are at peace. When we are at peace we can see. When we can see, we can run through the information like a card catalogue and begin to process a solution by asking ourselves a few questions: first, assess what the real problem is. Ask yourself what is really wrong here. And then ask that question again and again until you reach a conclusion. Second, once we know what is really wrong, we can then decide what measures we need to take to repair it or remove it and then thirdly, we can take identify the action steps needed to move forward.
Third, take a moment to appreciate what is going right in your life and remove focus from what is not. We may not be able to control what comes into our lives, but we certainly can control how we respond to it. By taking on an attitude of gratitude we can command our life to get back on the right road. By focusing our attention and energy on what’s good, we can take our power back and re-direct our path and our thoughts. And, underneath it all, we learn a bit of humility in knowing that somehow in time, life always finds a way to sort itself out anyway.
Have a great day!
