Sweet dreams...the means to grow

[Guest guest]

From: nanci baren

Date: 1/18/2008 8:32:48 PM

Subject: Sweet dreams...the means to grow

"THE MEANS TO GROW" Most of us have areas of life

In which we need to grow.

We need more patience.

We want greater self-discipline.

We long to strengthen our families,

Contribute to our friends,

And make a difference.Then come the setbacks.

She doesn't get the educational opportunities she had dreamed of and sought.

He is seriously hurt in a car wreck.

A business fails.

There is a chronic illness.

Some terrible personal tragedy strikes. Believe it or not,

Growth and setbacks seem to be related.

All sorts of studies point to it.

Most people who survive great personal trauma aren't destroyed by it.

They survive. They learn.

They develop still-closer personal relationships. They grow from their experience.Most of us know the term post-traumatic stress, but some experts

In the field of mental health are now using

The term post-traumatic growth.

They point to people who emerge from

Severe life crises feeling enlarged

Rather than diminished.

They speak of spiritual development,

Stronger personal relationships,

Greater personal strength,

Deeper appreciation of life, andClarity about priorities.We're talking about a positive change that comes about as a result of

The struggle with something very difficult.

It's not just some

Automatic outcome of a bad thing."

To be sure, some people bring

A fuller sense of security in life to a trauma. They have a better support system.

I know people who illustrate this phenomenon.

A woman who survived a painful divorce

From a cruelly abusive man is doing well

In a career she never planned to have and

Caring for two children who have been protected from what she once had to endure.

A man who wasn't supposed to survive widespreadCancer seems perfectly healthy

Seven years after his diagnosis.

A woman who didn't think she could survive

Her husband's death is happily married

To a man who felt equally devastated

At the loss of his wife two years earlier. Body, mind, and spirit are marvelously resilient. Injury or illness,

Divorce or bankruptcy,

Relocation or a cherished person's death -Each has the capacity to crush or dignify, disorient forever or reorient toThe people and things that matter most.

We have the capacity to overcome,

We are more likely to do so by consciously seeking peace than byFleeing in our confusion.Tragedy spares no one.

You have the grace not only to survive

But to grow.

Aseem Kaistha

It's your attitude and not your aptitude that determines your altitude.