When was the last time you experienced a crisis? Did it seem like it was the end of the world? Did you feel helpless, frustrated, burned-out or just down and depressed? Did you say to yourself, “This is the last straw. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! This has got to stop. I can’t go another day like this.”?
Everyone experiences moments where outer circumstances appear to be an overwhelming crisis. To many these circumstances dominate and rule their lives. To some these crises leave lasting scars unless they are recognized as truly being blessings. When the worst crisis becomes your greatest blessing, you heal. Nature does not deliver crisis without opportunity or misfortune without blessing.
Some people have crises that drag out for years. Others seem to nip their crises in the bud almost immediately. It’s not the outer circumstances that necessarily create the crises. While they may elicit the crises, it is a person’s reaction that actually turns circumstances into crises. The length of time it takes for you to recognize your outer crisis as a blessing correlates with your degree of wisdom. Pure wisdom is the instantaneous knowing that each crisis in life is indeed a blessing. Some misfortunes don’t reveal their blessing easily, while others are recognized immediately. Hidden within all misfortunes are the seeds of an equal but opposite fortune.
With the world’s financial crisis, hundreds of thousands of people were let go or laid off from their jobs. Some of these people were left without income, some without other career opportunities and some, ultimately, without their families. At first sight, this may have been perceived as a crisis, however, many of those same people have undergone an in-depth soul-searching and re-evaluation of their lives, only to discover that they genuinely had a dream in their hearts to be, do and have something more than what they were previously experiencing and accepting. Other people have tapped into a more profound purpose for their life than what they were allowing, and are now making their meaningful dreams come true. They are now doing exactly what they always loved to do but never had the guts to do until the crisis occurred.
Crises are ultimately blessings. They are the flip side of the coin of life. Many people have been temporarily devastated by broken relationships only to discover at some later time that their supposed misfortune was a blessing. Their very loss was their ultimate gain. Whenever a door shuts, a window opens.
The longer you live, the more this seemingly paradoxical relation becomes evident and the more you see the correlation between past crises and future blessings. Through time and experience, your reactions subside and more patient actions result. Since blessings are seeded in crisis and it seems quite easy to be thankful for blessings, why not move wisely ahead and assume that any perceived crisis is a blessing? Be thankful for its strengthening qualities. Why not act thankfully instead of reacting pitifully?
As long as outer circumstances run your life, you can expect a life filled with crises. But as soon as you take charge of your reactions and change them into thankful actions, your life will begin to flow.
Be thankful. You won’t be confronted with a crisis you can’t handle. The next time you’re confronted with what appears to be a crisis, just ask yourself, “What is the hidden blessing?” The deeper you look, the easier you will find it. When you do, you can say “good-bye” to its corresponding frustration, anger and depression.
No tree stood strong without the wind.
No group stood strong without its heretic.
No person can be strong without a challenge.
So be thankful for yours.
Love and Wisdom,
Dr. John Demartini
