WE LIVE IN A FUNNY OLD WORLD!

DANGER + OPPORTUNITY

On 12^th April, 1959 John F Kennedy quoted: “When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” 

Many authors and psychologists have used this quotation and the Chinese letters as a foundation for therapy; helping others through trauma or crisis. Let's face it, it looks good and sounds even better.

In recent years linguists have been setting the record straight and rightly so. 

In a crisis if nothing else, one seeks truth! 

As Abraham Lincoln stated: “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” 

If one thing is missing today it is truth!

An esteemed linguist, Professor Victor H Mair, points out that wēijī means a dangerous incident, a genuine crisis, and a time when things start to go wrong. He states emphatically that it does not mean an opportunity in the face of a crisis, it is not pointing to benefits or advantages in the given situation. He suggests that any guru in his right mind would never compound the danger of a crisis with such advice; they would be driven out of town! In the West we seem to have entertained what we thought was Eastern wisdom but which is in fact a misinterpretation of language.

This is not the end of the story.....
There seems to be a new awakening in a forum, an international forum of academics for the exchange and interaction of ideas, research and points of view that bear on a wide range of issues of concern and interest in our modern-day world. As a contribution towards their Global Conference held in Sydney, Australia this year they made a call for presentations on..............

OPPORTUNITY IN CRISIS: Finding Benefits in Difficult Life Events.

Has Modern culture taken an error in interpretation of Chinese language and turned it into a reality of life purely by quoting it and believing in its benefits? Did John F Kennedy unknowingly start something worthwhile through misinformation?

Although we have to discard this notion of wēijī as anything more than a crisis, the truth stands that meaning or opportunity can definitely bring healing from suffering or a crisis, the ideology was present before it was attached to this  ‘misinterpreted Chinese lettering’.

Viktor Frankl had proposed that life is given to us so that we can find meaning, even in suffering (logotherapy). He had experienced this in his own life and in others in the concentration camps of World War II.

 

Don’t you love truth, don’t you love real facts that you can ‘hang your hat on.’ Truth revealed does point to a crisis being an opportunity for growth, whether it can be meaningful and/or build our faith. I believe the outcome comes from the choices we make through our crisis, our ‘Valley of Tears.’ A friend has often advised me in times of crisis to "look for the Treasures of Darkness stored in secret places" (Isaiah 45:3).

Psalm 84

Blessed all those whose strength is in You (God),

Who have set their hearts to travel with You.

As they pass through the Valley of Tears (Baca),

They will make it a place of springs.

Crises will come, we know this. It seems that walking through a crisis has always been an opportunity for growth, for understanding and for meaning. Take heart. Seek truth and spiritual 'treasures' while move forward.

 

 

 

 

WARNING! ENERGY OVERLOAD!

WARNING! ENERGY OVERLOAD!

This warning came up on our TV this week and as I watched it gliding from side to side across the screen, I began to think........this message before me is so often how we feel but are unable to put into words. 

“Overload” is the new buzz word. 

Information Fatigue Syndrome (IFS), Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) and Information Overload Syndrome (IOS). 

The DSM V has added IAD as a disorder in order to whet the appetites of those in the profession for further research on the subject. 

Richard Swenson has stated in his book The Overload Syndrome (1998) that life sometimes feels like having a drink of water from a fire hose.....the fire hose is progress and our sinuses have never been cleaner!

I hear daily from young people in the 25-35 age bracket of ‘how tired they are’, of ‘how hard life is’. I believe this to be a product of the above but it certainly is not bound to this age group.

Our “A” type personalities, who live with their “carburettors stuck on full throttle,” are in the gravest danger. 

We all recognise the ‘A” types who are in denial of their limitations. It is becoming more prevalent and may eventually lead to overload and to symptoms such as “depression, heart attacks, work dread, ruined relationships, exhaustion and burnout”(Richard Swenson).

Some other symptoms of overload syndrome have been documented: Anxiety, negative thinking, headaches and driving too fast! How many South Africans do that?
 

 

Limits are there for our protection. There are exceptional people but there are no exceptions, we all have limits. We all have to learn and respect our limitations. We are not infinite....we only have 24 hours each day. Limitation is not the enemy, excess is.

 Jeff Davidson states that, “When your brain is always engaged, when your neurons are always firing, when you find yourself in a continual mode of reacting and responding, instead of steering and directing, the best and brightest solutions that you are capable of producing rarely see the light of day.”

It would seem that we are our own worst enemies, we will not attain our ultimate goals if we do not wake up to the fact that we need to work smarter and rest more often.

Rabbi Harold Kushner tells a story of some travellers in Africa. They employed some guides to help them carry supplies through the bush. After three days, the guides told them that they needed to rest the next day, they explained that they were not physically tired but” we have walked too far too fast and now we must wait for our souls to catch up to us.” I love that!

Don’t you think we live like this, moving too far too fast? But we hardly ever take that day of rest for our souls to catch up to us. The Hebrew for rest in Exodus 31:13, 17 ‘shavat’ means literally “he got his soul back.” God rested and was refreshed, restoring His soul.  

Your soul is your emotional-mental component as a person.

How do I restore it?

ANSWER: SIMPLICITY

 

Simplicity as I recognize it in this instance is “the absence of affectation or pretence.”

 “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” - Henry Thoreau

Our world lives by beliefs such as, “He who has the most toys in the end, wins.” 

For me, "A person's life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." Wisdom calls us to simplify.

It is okay not to be all things to all people as we take time out to rest and find space to heal. We need to give ourselves permission to rest.

David’s Twenty Third Psalm:

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want,

He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters,

He restores my soul.

 

DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK....STINKIN' THINKIN'

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK

 

Many of us live with the scars of growing up in a dysfunctional society. I know those who have grown up under the unfairness of apartheid, those with alcoholic or verbally abusive parents, those who have been bullied by peers etc etc.  What do we all have in common?

 

Stinkin’ Thinkin’!

We need to bear in mind that the way we think greatly impacts our behaviour. Thinking negatively or harmfully is bad for our physical and mental health. It can cripple our spirit, lead to depression, and hinder our ability to live a happy, fulfilling and contented life.
 
We may even be suffering from “learned helplessness” i.e. we had no solution to our past circumstances and no support therefore we still believe the same applies in our present circumstance.

We have absorbed so much; pictures of trauma, names we were called and the shame that we felt.

Being unconscious of this negativity, we engage in internal conversations throughout the day that still include the pessimism of the past. We believe what we think. 

Instead of saying, “I made a mistake,” you tell yourself, “I’m a jerk” or “I’m a loser” or “Don’t I ever learn.” This process is known as ‘labelling’ and is a distortion within our cognitive processing and can
become detrimental to our growth and our faith. 

David Burns believes that these labels are just a useless preoccupation that lead to further anger; anxiety, frustration and low self-esteem, only compounding our problems. The outflow of this can also impact us physically, our immune systems can take a knock and we become just miserable!

Faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse~ Philip Yancey.

 When we look back, we really want to hope for change in our lives, to see change in our thinking.  If we start having the faith to reprogramme our thoughts today, we can trust that it will happen.  

A lesson on my journey has been this:-

If I change my thinking and have internal conversations of truth, rectifying the lies I have believed for so long, eventually the truth will become my daily experience. I know it takes courage to reprogramme but with just one step at a time, I can reform my ‘Thinkin’ process. 

Truth is the key......for every ‘Stinkin’ thought I need to replace it with truth.

I would like to leave you with this; as Paul left these words with the church he visited in Philippi so long ago :

I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.(MSG)

 

 

 

 Break the bond of 'Stinkin Thinkin' in your life.

WHAT'S SO COMMON ABOUT SENSE?

     WHAT'S SO COMMON ABOUT SENSE?    

Rick Archer wrote an obituary to 'Common Sense':

"Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. He is survived by his 3 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing."

The conclusion I have come to is that the poor woman obviously did not read 

"7 Ways to drink hot coffee in a Restaurant".

We have an array of media pointing us to “7 Ways to ..."
We all know the "7 Ways of Highly Effective people" and acknowledge its wisdom but do we need the “7 Ways to Rock a Weave”? or "7 ways to Thank people for a retweet"? I'm not joking! How about "7 ways to Tell if your suit fits"?

Really, you don’t have a mirror?

Does the information we are bombarded with daily begin to override our common sense? Everyday experience is enhanced by common sense; we all know what can go wrong if we lose it:-
                                                 

 Jokes aside.......or are they an aside?

William James states that "Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just common sense dancing." I love that!

If we have no common sense, it will corrode our sense of humour.  We run into humourless people every day in our supermarkets and especially on our roads. Every survivor has need of a sense of humour and life these days is all about surviving!

Let’s pause and listen to our "gut" feel, then think of something that really amuses you and have a great big hearty laugh. 

Humour is an important asset: it means understanding and self-criticism. Where humour is absent, you'll find small-mindedness.
(Hebrew Proverb)

No one wants to be known as small-minded.

TURNING THE TABLES ON HOPE!

TURNING THE TABLES ON HOPE

The modern usage of the word has led the American Heritage Dictionary to change its definition:

The definition of hope published in the 4th edition was:

"A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfilment".

The definition for its 5th edition (2011) states:

"The longing or desire for something accompanied by belief in the possibility of its occurrence"

(Peter Chipman, Editor).

It would seem we have lost confidence! How sad..................

Hope theory, which falls under the philosophy of Positive Psychology, is goal-oriented. Willpower and way power, energy and excitement of goals are the modern dialogue of this philosophy.

An example of ‘Hope Theory” as therapy:

A woman wears an electronic bracelet that vibrates every 20 minutes to remind her to get up and stretch or walk down the hall......a new goal towards a hope of becoming more active, of not sitting constantly at her computer. I don't know about you but I know what I would do with that vibrating bracelet! :)

Does this not remind you of Pavlov's dog?

Anyone out there who has tried to diet?....we know how much willpower it takes! Many of us are pretty useless in this area therefore if I have to depend on such a platform to realise hope, then I know I am in deep trouble. Surely, hope  has greater significance.....this seems so watered down, even selfish.

What of.........Hope Springs Eternal! -Alexander Pope, an Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733. We have songs, ringtones, a movie, a TV series and numerous blogs named from this quotation, all crying out and suggesting that there is a thirst for renewed hope.

Hope does not prove itself in works, hope springs from our inner world; it is instilled by something bigger than us.

As Adele sings: “I can't keep up with your turning tables, under your thumb, I can't breathe.”

Let’s turn back the tables on hope. Let’s meditate on its true meaning..........

Breathe in....

breathe out......truly hope again.

Xxxxxxxxx Margs