WHEN “THE WORST” HAPPENS

Being let go at work reminded Linda of her need to move forward in her life, to release the past and the good girl image — to stop holding back her emotions and her breath. She used this experience as a wake-up call to:

1. Reverse her habit of procrastination
2. Accept change more easily
3. Seize the present moment for taking action (instead of dwelling in the past)

Linda used the FUN program to Focus, Undo, and Now Act and was able to perceive this event differently. She Focused, without judgment, on her “loss.” She Undid her habitual procrastination and sadness. Then she Now Acted through using the shock to wake herself up and pull herself out of the hole. When she chose to see her so-called misfortune in a different light, it became a turning point. It took on the form of a new street that she was free to walk down, now that she had noticed it was there. Though the experience was stressful, her response was empowering and served to improve her breathing, not worsen it. Indeed, it helped her return to her healing path, freeing not only her breathing but also her beliefs about what was possible.

Even if you’ve been walking down the same street all your life, it’s never too late to wake up and break your habit. FUN enables you to let go of the victim mentality, the one that says “I have no control over this: I am helpless, hopeless, and enslaved.” Instead, you become able to see the connections between disease and stress, emotions and symptoms, responsibility and freedom. By Focusing on whatever is going on in your life, Undoing your errors, and Now Acting on what needs to be changed, you become your own authority. Once we make this shift, the world around us shifts as well.

The experts assume a different place. They are no longer above us while we wait below for them to tell us what’s right or wrong, good or bad, normal or abnormal. We discover that when people, no matter how brilliant, powerful, or well informed, say “Jump!” we don’t need to ask “How high?” We decide for ourselves what’s valuable. And then we are able to choose from a far broader range of options.

If you are willing to see how you get stuck in your own life as the process of falling into the hole, you can make excellent use of it. This image (and the concurrent feelings of being lost, hopeless, and unable to find a way out) is familiar to most of us. One way to handle this would be through imagery. Simply see yourself in the hole, since having an asthma attack can feel like being enclosed in a dark space, being constricted, in pain, a victim. Then use your imagination to get yourself out; and see what happens and how you feel.