The nature of crisis and its hidden opportunities.
0:00:59.6 Charlotte: Over the last 25 years, I've worked intimately with people experiencing crisis. The degrees of crisis run anywhere from experiencing a certain loss of a loved one, whether it be to death or suicide or an overdose, crisis such as being betrayed, an extramarital affair, children in the depth of addiction, or abuse being revealed, accident that's been fatal, even murder, crisis has great extremes. And when working with those people, I am consistently in awe of the strength of the human spirit. We are far less fragile than we think. We are capable of overcoming things that at the time seem like more than we could possibly bear. And yet we do, people do. And it's not just about overcoming it. That's the key is, it's not just about surviving a crisis and living on, it's about living into the crisis and experiencing the crisis wholeheartedly. So that from that crisis, you can extract hidden blessings. And that may be, and often is very difficult to even conceive of at the time of crisis, because people are so grief stricken and rightfully so.
0:02:59.4 Charlotte: However, those people that I have worked with and have not just moved on, but have had the bravery and the connection to their human spirit, such that they really surrender on to the crisis. They have been able to glean incredible insights about themselves, about life, about what it is that they believe in, that they otherwise wouldn't have found. And they have taken those insights. And not only been deeply contemplative with those insights, but have used them as an inspiration and a driving force towards remodeling their life. And the landscape of their reality. And crisis is not always circumstance dependent. Meaning, I have also worked with many people who have experienced a crisis that hasn't been due to any of those circumstances I listed moments ago. But what constitutes a crisis, what makes a crisis occur is when the psyche can no longer hold opposing conflicting realities. The brain is a remarkable system and its capacity is vast. However, when we are living in a way that is split, if we're living in a way where we are juggling opposing ideologies, that can cause a systems error.
0:05:02.9 Charlotte: And it doesn't always happen immediately, but over time, the hard drive just gives up. It gives in, it caves, because the brain no longer has the endurance to sustain the justification required to convince these opposing parts of the psyche, these splits that there's a harmony. And so, it is, crisis by nature is when there is a fracturing that occurs. And in that fracturing, that breakdown of systems, there is always an opportunity to not glue it back together, to not help to provide more endurance, but to say, "Okay, let this be, let this fracturing occur." And let's look at all of the separate parts, and which parts of your reality do you want to pick back up? We have an opportunity to remodel and throw away what is no longer serving you, no longer in alignment with living into your authentic self and your ultimate purpose. And that is what we all need to continue to be more conscientious to. As the world gets more and more complicated, is having a mindfulness as to what our psyche can hold and to keep things simple by keeping things as true as possible.