Embrace Rebirth
5 Steps to Transform Crisis into Opportunity
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You’ve probably heard it said: crisis brings opportunity. Not just any regular opportunity either — an opportunity for a profound rebirth.
But what does that mean? And how do you do it?
While you’re smack dab in the middle of a crisis, breakdown, meltdown, or time of loss by any other name, it certainly doesn’t feel like a portal to rebirth. Yet, it is. Whether this describes your life situation now, or you want to tuck this away for a future time, here are the steps you need to begin to excavate the opportunity out of the crisis:
1. Accept the crisis as the holder of control
As long as you’re fighting to stay in control, keep your head above water, soldier on, or whatever other expression you might use to deny the crisis, the opportunity for rebirth will remain elusive. When your life is in a state of breakdown — when your identity, comforts, beliefs, assumptions fail you — it’s not the time to fortify them. And it’s long past time to justify them. The only thing to do now is release your hold on them. This way, you can discover who you are without them.
2. Commit to radical self-examination
The crisis has not come to torment you, though it might feel like it.
Instead, it is turning your life inside out so that you can see it from a different perspective. The wisest way to move through a crisis, therefore, is to do the diligent work of self-examination and inquiry the crisis is asking you to do.
- What have you lost?
- What else has it taken along with it?
- How was it supporting you?
- How was it holding you back?
- Where did it come from?
- Who are you without this person/thing/status/belief?
This can sometimes be a cringe-worthy exercise, but if you do it with the right support and in the right frame of mind (a sense of humor, even a biting one, can be a helpful companion), you can begin to accept yourself and heal.
