You Can Survive Disaster

Disasters assault you at the most unforeseen moments. They arrive without warning, leave the victims comfortless and lives shattered. There is no second chance in the midst of disaster, just total devastation.

Whether it is fires, death, divorce, illness, or acts of terrorism, the grief that is caused has a central theme. It hurts!! So how do we cope with so much heartache?

In the beginning you are engulfed by the mind-numbing state of shock and absolute disbelief, where the real facts don’t register. This how the body helps you to survive. If the fullness of the facts could hit home immediately, no one would survive!

Then begins the roller coaster ride of a concoction of disbelief, anger, guilt and a whole range of sentiments that have your world fleeing like a runaway jet.

Here is where you need to pay attention to your own wounds and permit a small hint of the healing process to at least begin. For whether you believe it or not, there will be healing over time. The reality is you have no choice but to keep on going. Where life exists there is hope. Yes you may have lost a loved one, or good friends, or an entire way of life, but you still have life in you. Your heart is still pumping and your body demands you care for it.

Throughout history disasters have proven to be times of opportunity. Opportunity that forces out the community spirit, as has been revealed in the quick reaction to the horrendous bush fires that have roared across the southern part of Australia. Opportunities for the least noticed person in the area to become a hero.

Opportunities for people to give a helping hand to others they don’t even know. Opportunities to express a true sense of empathy with the people who are hurting. Opportunities to let others reach out to you. Comforting and aiding others is often the best and most healing route you can take, even if it is merely in the manner of presenting a comforting shoulder for someone to shed their tears on.

Is often in times of disasters, you come face to face with your fears, in living three D. The nightmarish "What ifs..?" that terrify you in the still small hours of the morning, when life is at its lowest point.

Disasters bring you to the reality that life is unpredictable and more often than not you have to deal with things out of the blue. Disasters turn you into refugees. People who must build another kind of life. People who know what it is to have nothing. No matter what you are feeling, you simply can’t roll over and quit when disaster bowls you over.

The luxury of having a pity party is not an option. Feeling sorry for yourself hurts no one but yourself. Disasters are the time you are forced to search deep inside yourself to find strengths you never thought you even had.

The key to survival through a disaster is that you have to become a realist and an optimist at the same time, as life-destroying circumstances change you forever. You come out the other side a different person.

Your life becomes clearly divided, when disaster strikes, with before and after the occurrence. You will find you are not able to look at even the simplest things of life in the same manner. For the finish of one thing is always the start of something new. It has been proven over and again that human nature will rise once more, just as from the ashes the phantom phoenix will rise afresh.

How are you supposed to endure through disasters? You simply look back and discover the lessons from the past, but more importantly you look ahead and take one small step at a time. The highest peaks on earth were conquered through one small step at a time. You can do it also. You can take that next small step, no matter how heartbreaking it is. Let tomorrow and the big things take care of themselves. Just survive today.