To close my blogs about my strategy in managing life challenges, today I would like to talk about some final key elements in my process, which became instrumental in attaining a sense of transcendence and completeness. (For antecedents on this topic please see my previous blogs, Focus is Manifestation – Parts I to IV.)

I would love to hear your comments as you see fit.

In a conversation with a friend, he emphasized that finding the “right moment” when dealing with disease or challenging circumstances is of supreme importance for the unfoldment of health. In my own healing work when I first experienced severe tinnitus I knew that moment had come when I moved from the phase of uncertainty to the stage of rebuilding my life. I still remember the day when the great insight came to me… I realized I had to live… pure and simple… it was a supreme need to live that took me into a firm determination and shift from an approach of “live with it” or “cope” to manage and transcend tinnitus in a renewed spirit of wellness and completeness. Yes, I was going to be able to do so if I could only decide… truly from the depths of my being… that I could do it.

Such initial one moment of supreme importance was strengthened by the realization that pain is for a purpose.

Marc Edmund Jones, founder of the Sabian Assembly, spoke of these things and here are some of his insights:

• Experience is rehearsal. Experience is under continuous reconstruction.
• Every limitation in life is an opportunity for the clarification of one’s direction in a wider perspective, never a set-back or an obstacle.
• The person with many troubles is alive and their contribution may possibly be greater than that of someone with high success in smooth living.
• Suffering is pain with a purpose. When suffering, a person may enter into deeper realms of living and lift life to higher levels of experience and understanding.

Finally, here are a few additional comments to round out Focus is Manifestation, an approach to meaningful living, also supported by insights of another dear friend who made her transition to spirit four years ago.

1. Remember, you receive from it what you put into it.
2. Ask, what can I do with this? — What is it good for?
3. Create! Ask, how can I make this a creative challenge rather than an overwhelming obstacle?
4. Appreciation is a key.
5. You make your reality via the significance you give to your experience.
6. Act “as if.”
7. Be yourself — manifest your full potential!

On this occasion, I would like to share with you some of the keys I have developed that have worked for me in managing life challenges, during the third phase when we experience a deep need to move ahead as a series of strategies unfold to create a renewed identity, new goals and a fresh sense of mission in intentional living, and to some extent a new future. (For antecedents on this topic please see previous blogs, Focus is Manifestation – Parts I, II and III)

Stage III. Rebuilding

• Visualize success.
• Choose new pattern before a routine establishes itself.
• Keep open communication with meaningful people about feelings, plans.
• Set new priorities.
• Think creatively – brainstorm.
• Establish renewed goals.
• List accomplishments.
• Use time effectively.
• Continue assessing interests.
• Remember it is a process – it takes time for results.
• Be aware of new stress factors.
• Be optimistic – there is always hope.
• List needed adjustments.
• Communicate needs.
• Notice the difference – and celebrate progress.

Focus is Manifestation – that is, how you think and act is what will be – is my approach to life. As a result, tinnitus does not control my life anymore, and I now have a great sense of wellness and renewed health. I know that whatever I experience is a privilege, an opportunity to understand life better, to know who I am and where I’m heading — an opportunity for transcendence.

Final comments on this topic in my next blog.

Now I would like to focus on some of the keys I have developed that have worked for me in managing life challenges, during the second phase when we go through a stage of chaos and confusion, with high emotional stress, without knowing what to do next… (For antecedents on this topic please see my previous blogs, Focus is Manifestation – Parts I & II)

Stage II. Uncertainty

• Strengthen meaningful relationships.
• Do small things well.
• Test talents in new areas.
• Learn at each new step.
• Read.
• Listen to favorite music.
• List strengths.
• Celebrate small achievements.
• Revisit old goals.
• Keep moving!
• Expand a hobby.
• Initiate a daily period for reflection/meditation.
• Don’t act just for the sake of action.
• Develop new ideas.
• Transform ideas into action.
• Relax and think in an effort to developing poise.
• Realize plans can change as situation changes.
• See strategies to manage new circumstances as sources of strength.

More on this topic in my next blog.

Today I would like to share with you some of the keys I have developed that have worked for me in managing life challenges, during the first phase when we go through rejection and denial, refusing to accept that things have changed and loosing a sense of serenity and inner poise. (For antecedents on this topic please see my previous blog, Focus is Manifestation – Part I)

Stage I. Confronting New Reality

• Get involved in a low risk, high reward commitment.
• Reach out for ideas and support.
• Give it time.
• Stay in touch with own thoughts and feelings.
• Exercise.
• Implement practical measures and test how they work.
• Seek out information.
• Focus forward rather than backward.
• Stay in contact with family and friends.
• Re-examine daily activities and see how they fit into new circumstances.

More on this topic in my next blog.

Once in a while, something happens in our daily routine that truly challenges our ability to manage change in our lives: a severe illness, the loss of a loved one, the ending of a relationship, a major change in the work environment, a new career, etc. That’s what I experienced when I first encountered a severe case of tinnitus (ringing in the ears) some 18 years ago. It became a very threatening situation…. As I lost control of my business and personal activities, I felt I lost control of my life.

One of the most relevant elements in my process was an emphasis on what a close friend of mine used to say, “That which you focus on, you strengthen.”

With time, I developed a series of strategies to adjust to the new circumstances in finding health and learning from experience. Now I’m able to see the situation as a creative challenge rather than as an overwhelming obstacle.

How did I make this transition?

Stage I. Confronting New Reality. When I first encountered tinnitus, I experienced an initial phase of rejection and denial — I refused to believe things had changed.

Stage II. Uncertainty. For ten weeks, I went through a stage of chaos and confusion, with high emotional stress — I didn’t know what to do.

Stage III. Rebuilding. Then I realized I needed to move ahead, so I started developing a series of strategies to create a renewed identity, new goals, and to some extent, a new future.

Each stage provided me with insights that became a step forward in developing new strategies to managing life challenges.

More about each stage in following blogs.

A person in Cuba has asked me to share some thoughts about the Sabian perspective about opportunities. Marc Edmund Jones, founder of the Sabian Assembly, expressed that everything we experience becomes an opportunity or a challenge and never a calamity or a test or payment of ripe karma and the like. Every limitation in life is an opportunity for the clarification of one’s direction in a wider perspective, never a set-back or an obstacle.

My correspondent replied that what he could take from my comments was the importance of having positive thinking, understanding that rather than a punishment we are talking about an opportunity to change.

“That which we focus on we strengthen”, a dear friend used to say, and her words of wisdom resonate through my life experiences and process to kindle the inner light while confronting and managing life challenges.

More about this approach in life in following blogs.

Elizabeth McAlister, professor of religion at Wesleyan University, recently wrote an article for CNN talking about the pain people are experiencing in Haiti. She pointed out that how we make meaning of this suffering will be crucial to how we respond, in the long term, as a global community.

To see her blog, Why does Haiti suffer so much please click here.

I could feel her pain and compassion as she expressed her ideas and appreciated her efforts to express a wide variety of potential explanations as to what truly is a very complex situation. The suffering Haitians are enduring is in my heart and soul as well. In light of such devastation I would like to offer some thoughts about the meaning of pain and suffering in managing life challenges. From my perspective, the goal that is sought and achieved through pain is a transcendence of baffling difficulties by the free and somewhat paradoxical choice or acceptance of greater difficulties. How does this work? (1) Pain gives way to the finer intensity of faith and aspiration; (2) Human dissatisfaction may result in restlessness that transforms into creativity and constructive acts for the well-being of our fellows, one of the areas where we see this now is in the creative ways around the world that are being developed to speed up the adoption of orphans; (3) Suffering of soul brings the opportunity for sacrificial dedication in ameliorating the lot of humankind, so clearly seen in the efforts to rescue survivors and to provide medical care even with very scarce resources.

In Haiti we are now witnessing the manifestation of all three scenarios with the participation of people from all over the world which offers us all the opportunity to experience the functioning of the global community in co-operation for the good of all. My prayers and love are with all Haitians.

In a message of hope and inner peace, it is a privilege to post my friend’s Jonas Mather’s Poem as he shares his inner light with the readers of my blog this day, also published on his book, “Shards”. Oneness is eternal.

Rebirth

In the instant always

Sunrise, sunset.

Eternal cycle bound to continue

Until sun’s end

And anew

When the universe resumes its course

In continuing rebirth.

To end is to begin.

During a trip to Glastonbury, England, I had the privilege to meet author Anthea Mitchell, from the Heart Centre, and through time we have had most inspiring conversations. I am joyful to share with you this day what her friend John O’Donohue wrote:

“Behind each face and voice lies the silence of the heart. This silence is as old as the universe. It holds within it a time before vegetation clothed the earth, or animals walked, or sound echoed. This silence waits quietly under thoughts, beneath actions, relationships, behind days, nights and names. … it is in this sanctuary that experience is sifted and transfigured. It is where our vanished day secretly gathers. This silence is the home of memory and identity. It houses the spirit which coheres, articulates and shapes each human life.”

Experiencing a sense of community contributes to a feeling of wholeness in living.  I love this website which invites us to Light a Candle for Peace!

More than eight million people have lit candles in our global virtual community.  In this embrace of a common ideal we are all One.

Blessings and Love to You in the joy of inner peace.