Full Description
Approach Crisis with Self-Love, Assertiveness and CourageYou are not alone: Since the start of the recession, 8.8 million jobs have been lost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bridgitte Jackson-Buckley was one of those 8.8 million people who lost their jobs. Between 2007 and 2014, she was also one of 7.3 million homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure. Some affected by job loss and foreclosure, due to the economic downturn, were able to bounce back relatively emotionally unscathed. Many, however, internalized the outer events as a negative reflection of their personal capacities without taking a deeper look at the crisis as a potential underlying catalyst. In The Gift of Crisis, Bridgitte shows you how to explore crisis as a tool for courageous change, regaining your self-esteem with self-love and self-compassion.
Regain control with assertiveness: Although a personal economic crisis can be viewed as an externally-influenced event that is somehow both beyond your control and within your control, it can also be an opportunity to examine the conscious and sub-conscious conditions that brought the experience into your life. It was through experiences of prolonged financial crisis that Bridgitte realized she subconsciously co-created experiences that felt so bad until the only place she could go was within—exactly where she needed to go. In The Gift of Crisis, you will discover how helpful going within and retaking control can be for you, too.
Find space for spiritual growth: The Gift of Crisis will show how repeated crises can serve as a catalyst to reveal the underlying purpose, and how questions posed during a meditative state can reveal answers in the direction of a higher purpose. For women and men who are sincerely interested in spiritual growth, yet find it difficult to make "mental room" to dedicate to such growth due to personal distractions, this inspirational book will demonstrate the practical manner in which meditation and prayer can assist during any type of crisis as a means of reaching for a calmer, clearer, more courageous and purposeful life.
The Gift of Crisis interposes personal stories and prescriptive ideas amidst ongoing financial destitution to raise your self-esteem, self-compassion and self-love. In reading this book, you will learn how to:
Deepen your trust in a Higher Intelligence and in your higher purpose
Welcome change and embrace change with courage
Focus your attention on the emergence of new possibilities as a result of the crisis
If you liked Brené Brown's inspirational book The Gifts of Imperfection, you'll love The Gift of Crisis.
Contents
Gift of Crisis Introduction Excerpt #1 :
Within each of us there is a higher part that goes beyond our conscious awareness. This part
of us, the Higher Self, communicates with a higher, more expansive and intelligent Divine
Consciousness that some refer to as God, Goddess, I AM Presence or something else. The Higher
Self is a part of the Divine Consciousness. It is part of you, yet more than you. Within the
practice of quieting the mind to connect with our Higher Self, we can access unconscious
information from the highest part of ourselves. Meditation is the "doorway" through which
information can be brought into our conscious awareness, to identify the highest course of action
towards the highest outcome.
I began to notice the ways in which meditation helped me become aware of how I blocked
the flow of inner guidance with constant thinking and worry, and my resistance to let go of that
which I no longer wanted. I also began to notice how grace appeared in my life in simple, yet
miraculous outcomes. These experiences pushed me to thoroughly examine my self-sabotaging
habits, beliefs, emotional patterns and ways of perceiving and being in the world. I had to make
an effort to uncover the hidden parts of myself that kept me attached to financial disarray and
problematic situations. I had a lot of "un-learning" to do. Overtime my mind began to interpret
fewer situations as stressful. I was able to remain more centered and be less agitated by external
events. I wasn't as susceptible to emotional triggers. As I continued to meditate and pray, there
was less fear and agony and more openness to new possibilities.
I share this with you because I have come to see that although the guidance was for me and
came through me, it was not solely for me. It is also for those who find themselves in similar
situations of distress, and are willing to cultivate a connection with a higher consciousness to
better discern where life is trying to lead you. Knowing that we see ourselves in the stories of
others, it is my sincerest wish that the guidance from these meditations is as helpful to you as it
has been for me. It is my wish that you will grow to trust yourself; that you will trust the inner
guidance that is available and within you. It is my hope that you will seek out opportunities for
personal growth that lie in mundane long-term struggles, and come to know that nothing we
experience in this life is futile. With hindsight it becomes clear that struggle and triumph both
serve a higher purpose for personal growth. And finally, it is my greatest hope that you will have
the courage to let your crisis become the catalyst that leads you onto your highest life path. So
often it is said that "meditation helps" until it almost seems like a redundant Hallmark-ish cliché.
I can honestly say this is absolutely true. Meditation does help. Meditation can help.
1
Gift of Crisis Introduction Excerpt #2 :
After years of prolonged financial problems, I could no longer dismiss the repetition of these
problems in my life. The crises in my life eventually served as catalysts for me to understand
that I needed to make different choices to engage higher perspectives. In reading self-help and
personal growth books, I began to understand when there is a reoccurring problem, such as the
financial hardship we experienced, the underlying higher messages want to be revealed. They
will make a continuous unyielding effort to get our attention through repeated states of crisis.
The opportunity that lies within perpetual crisis is to be willing to look closely, and identify the
underlying patterns and message in what is happening around you.
The prolonged crisis, along with the hundreds of books I read and uplifting talks I attended,
encouraged me to be still to allow the deeper messages to make themselves known. It was from
this humble beginning that I actively began to participate in my personal unfoldment by means
of what would become my saving grace, going within and seeking clarity through meditation and
prayer.
During my meditations, in addition to periods of silence after prayer, I began to ask questions
to solicit clarity and guidance. I noticed that answers would indeed come into my awareness.
However, as soon as the meditation was over, I would forget what guidance came into my
awareness. The only way to remember would be for me to write it down. It was at that time I
decided to bring a pad and pen to my meditation and prayer sessions. At the start of the
meditation, I would first pray then move into a period of sustained silence. With my eyes closed I
would then say the following:
"I call upon my Higher Self to join me in my meditation. During this meditation, I ask that
you protect me from any and all vibrations, energies, frequencies and communications in all
directions of time past, present and future that are not of love, light and the highest good. Please
let this communication be clear. Let the answers be communicated to me in a way that is easy for
me to understand. Please let me feel your loving energy when you are ready to begin. I thank
you in advance for your presence."
For more than one year, I sat in a meditative state and asked questions to help me navigate
the difficult and uncertain times I faced. The guidance I recorded helped me to move through
some of the most difficult and unsettling times with comforting reassurance that I was deeply
loved, there was no need to be afraid and that I was not alone. The guidance I received, however,
were not the answers I wanted. My posed questions and concerns were attempts to address the
immediate unfavorable conditions that surrounded me. The guidance during my meditation,
however, provided the larger context of what was happening in my life and the higher messages
that sought to make themselves known.
Foreword
Introduction
PART I: THE CRISIS
Ch. One: The Foreclosure
Ch. Two: Notice-to-Quit
1. What is a Vision?
2. Let the Vision Reveal Itself
Contemplative Questions
3. Hold the Vision
How to Hold the Vision
How to Nurture the Vision
What Sabotages the Vision?
4. Trust the Vision
5. Surrender
6. Faith
Ch. Three: Change is Simply Change
1. Change
Key components to accept change
Key points to remember regarding change
Contemplative Questions
2. Let Fearful Beliefs Disintegrate
Key points to remember regarding fearful thoughts
Contemplative Questions
How to let fearful thoughts disintegrate
3. Let the Universe Support You
How to let the universe support you
4. Let the Experience Flow
How to let the experience flow
Quiet reminders to repeat when having difficulty letting the
experience flow
5. Create the Pathway for Expansion
6. Maintain a State of Calm
Suggestions to maintain a state of calm
7. Believe It, Then See It
PART II: THE CATALYSTS
Ch. Four: Hiding the Hardship
1. Nothing is Futile
Key points to remember nothing is futile
Exercise
2. Importance of Being Grounded
Key points about being grounded
3. Everything is Rising to the Surface
Examples of negative core beliefs
Contemplative questions
Key points about everything rising to the surface
4. Speak from Your Heart
Key points to speak from your heart
Ch. Five: Letting Go
1. You Cannot Escape What Needs to be Resolved
How to release what no longer has a place in your life
2. Allow your Higher Self to Reconnect with Your Worldly Self
How to allow the reconnection
3. Move Toward Growth, Toward the Life Force
4. The Pull of Old and Destructive Patterns
5. Let Love Express Itself
Ch. Six: The Role of Family in Spiritual Growth
PART III: THE PATH
Ch. Seven: Opening up to Grace
1. Welcome New Opportunities
2. Be Open to All That Needs to Flow through You
3. Embrace Courage
Ch. Eight: Willing to be Visible
1. To Look for it is also to Notice it's "Not There."
2. You Will Know Where and How to Serve
3. The Possibility to Create Greater Discomfort or More of What You Want
How to encourage possibilities
4. Participate in your life
Ch. Nine: Living on Purpose
1. There is No Magic Formula, No Magic Sprinkle Dust
2. Take Another Step
3. Know Without Needing Validation
4. Soul Call
Epilogue On Morning and Becoming
