Making Shifts

As many of you know I grew up in New Zealand, moving here in 1984.

Some of my family live in and around the Christchurch area. Naturally I’ve been talking to them about the recent earthquake and the impact it has had on the locals. It seems shock is the biggest factor, shock that their lives and city could be so significantly affected by something massive and completely beyond their control.

We get so complacent in our lives and convince ourselves that we are in control and it always knocks us so off balance when nature or fate throws us a ‘curve ball.’  Destructive acts of nature such as bushfires, earthquakes or floods make us realise that we are in effect powerless. While for many people that is extremely stressful, it is also a useful reminder that we can really only have power over our internal environment.

Instead of using up all our energy trying to control our external environment, I think we are better served if we work on finding our inner space, feeling totally comfortable within it, and building up our safe centre.

Then when we do get hit by the unexpected, overwhelming or confrontational we have resilience, understanding and strength to deal and grow from the ‘chaos’ which is an inevitable part of human existence.