Four Ways to Weather Any Kind of Crisis

Currently there is being experienced throughout the world the collapse of institutions that have served to allow us to live a particular way. This has tended to create a ‘have’ and ‘have not’ circumstance. The symbol of the crisis in the I Ching is also the symbol for opportunity or the ability to create what is new.

We read in the press about the ‘credit crunch’. There is, however, no limit to your ability to allow creation to express itself through you. There is no limit to the expression of kindness, compassion, and faith. The invitation is always open to accept. Where many people hesitate out of fear comes from a sense of feeling separate from the source that both creates and gives all. It does not invest in the future. It simply overflows, pouring itself away in the forever now. I recognises no limitation, only creation in a vast variety of forms. These forms can become institutions guided by fai
ess and the distribution of this abundance in equal measure across the planet for the highest good of all.

There is enough wisdom available to create a world of plenty for everyone. This does not mean that we give licence to unbridled consumption. That has to be seen in relation to the needs of the planet, which we are not separate from nor ever will be separate from unless we create a situation where she rebalances the planet for the highest good.

In times of crisis and opportunity what can you do as an individual? There are some key practices that will allow you to be creative when all around you feels destroyed.

1. Be Aware of How You Feel

The situation where you find yourself may create anxiety in some form. You then project an idea of what the future may hold. For some people it will look bleak. If you have no spiritual practice to anchor you in such times then you will be blown about like a boat in an ocean’s storm. All spiritual practices take you into the present moment.

The present is the only time you have. In order to deal effectively with any situation it is best to be present and detached. Detachment gets a bad press. Usually people think it means being devoid of emotion. There are in one sense not far off the mark.

Emotions are the movement of feelings with judgements attached to them.

Feelings, on the other hand, are the free flow of energy in response to the moment.

Detachment does not mean in any sense that you do not care. It means clear, undistorted attention. This is the right use of feeling and intellect. It is an experience of calm presence. It is both aware and responsive but never reactionary.

2. Practice Witness Consciousnessnn A spiritual practice such as meditation will take you into the practice of witness consciousness. This allows you to become more practiced in detachment. If however, it makes you less responsive and less able to feel your feelings it can become a form of avoiding or denying your feeling sense of self. No spiritual journey can take you home if you deny the life of your feeling body.

3. Practice Breath Awareness

When you are less than calm you might be advised to stop and take several deep breaths. This is a practice that you can use everyday to anchor you in the present. When you are concentrated on the breath you become present. The breath slows and with it the mind that is the chattering mind begins to fall silent. It is out of this silence that new creative solutions arise.

4. Have Faith in the Process

Creation is still creating. It is always creating. Nothing in form lasts forever. Cultures do not last. Institutions rise and fall. So do governments. Bodies wear out. The reason for this is that creation will create anew. You feel apart from this ongoing process but it does not feel apart from you. When you can align yourself with the creative process then the ups and downs become less dramatic. It isn’t that there are no ups and downs but that you can see them coming and flow with them. You were not created so that some God could come along and have fun messing up your life situation. You were created to flow into higher and higher forms of the expression of Love. When you get attached to any one particular way then Love comes to break up the energy form so that it can go higher. You work is to allow that flow. When you resist you suffer.

You can choose to align your heart in faith that Love knows how to be creative in more joyous ways than your sense of self knows. Become as one willing to allow Love to use you for its own purpose.

Then the real crunch will happen. You will take no credit for all that is given and all that is poured through you. You will become a nobody special except that you radiate. You radiate the power of creation as co-creator with the Divine. You pour from the well of the infinite. You become a willing servant of Love.

Bank on this and there will be no credit crunch in your life.nn© Tony Cuckson 2008