Top Ten Survival Tips to Sail Through a Crisis

Crises Leave Multiple Energetic Imprints The Chinese translation means both “danger” and “opportunity”. We live in a time of multiple global crises which can even more intensify individual crises. In the course of a well-lived lifetime one will experience serious, multiple crises. The all leave their significant traumatic imprints in our psyches and, I believe, in our energetic fields. Top Tips to Sail Through a Crisis The clinical diagnoses for this is literally called post-traumatic stress syndrome, currently of pandemic proportions in returning military from combat zones. Here are my top ten survival tips to sail through a crises: REST.rnKnow how much sleep you need as a baseline foundation and prioritize getting it as an average – don’t shortchange yourself, because you are already at risk for illness, accidents and general decompensation. Sleep is the foundations of a healthy immune response and even a few hours of deprivation wreck havoc on many important cognitive processes. EAT FOR QUALITY AND FOR OPPORTUNITYrnDitto eating nutritiously. Of course, it may not be enough. Realize that eating late at night does not bode well for attempting to pull late nights - should the need arise. Digesting all that food takes a lot of energy, and if its already late in the day, eating lots when you're trying to finish some late work is counterproductive. Drink water! Try to keep the emotional eating of empty calories at a minimum. MAKE YOUR TOP 10 LISTS TO NOURISH AND RELAXrnMake a “top ten list to nourish myself” with simple directives that are pleasing and soothing to you and that don’t require a whole lot from you if at all possible, meaning costing a lot of money, requiring complicated planning and time, or depend on multiple other elements, including people to carry out. Two examples would be taking a bubble bath or calling up a friend who will listen lovingly and attentively to you without offering advice unless you specifically ask for it. rnDrink a lot of water – being stressed out in a crisis creates subtle levels of dehydration. If at all possible get outside every day, or as much as you can, and try to move while you’re out there – like walk, bike, swim, etc. You will both energetically recharge and rebalance your body, mind and spirit, and discharge anxiety. rnJournal if you’re at all willing to do so. Simply write down your feelings for five minutes or less without analyzing yourself or trying to force any conclusions. rnGet in a maximally objective and reflective space and consider what, if anything, about the crisis you’re experiencing that fundamentally threatens your survival. Because experiencing crises throws us into a full-blown stress response, we go into “fight or flight” mode, which pushes us into assuming that our life is being threatened when that may not at all be the case. rnSee if you can hear from a source who has experienced a good resolution from a similar or thematically similar crisis, whether this source is someone you know, or a famous person who has been interviewed or written a book to tell their story. This can be practically helpful as well as offer you a central source of support and guidance. Take some uninterrupted time – twenty minutes or more – and consider whether you have ever experienced a similar crisis or situation that seems to offer a similar thematic challenge to your current perceived crisis, and review the resolution that occurred. This remembering typically stimulates more expansive brainstorming, and can inspire your intuition to offer excellent guidelines that frequently lead to real resolution. It also reminds you that “this too shall pass”, and you will survive. However you understand what 12-step programs call your “higher power”, once a day for a minute or longer settle back into a comfortable position, take three full, even, deep, cleansing breaths, and imagine you can contact this divine source – whereupon you turn your crisis over to it, asking your higher power to help move you to wherever real resolution exists. Additionally imagine affirming you are open to any way this can occur through the direction of your higher guidance. When you’ve finished this meditative exercise, imagine letting it all go to your higher power, and tell yourself this is all being most effectively, and on an ongoing basis, worked on. Then focus on something mundane and completely unrelated to the crisis. These top ten tips will highlight the “opportunity” part of the Chinese translation of the word “crisis”, and derail the “danger” part.