The Circle of Crisis

I talk about the “circle of crisis” in my workshops or here on my blog, but I have not actually sat-down and explained the term. I see the circle of crisis as when a person, a family, an organization, or even a company can’t move forward — even the most simple task as calling a doctor becomes to overwhelming. You are consumed with either the anxiety of the future (how will my child survive without me as an adult) or too focused on the past (what-if my child had more intervention when my child was three) to work in the present.

Emotions get tied around the task at the present moment and become too difficult or too overwhelming to accomplish and the circle of crisis keeps revolving. Often times the task whether it is revising IEP goals for your next meeting or calling about a hearing test takes much less time than we think, if can step-out of the circle of crisis and into a peaceful state that lives in the present.

By jumping off the train of crisis you can deal in the moment and leave the future what-ifs to the future. Some strategies I discuss in my workbook and workshops are writing down steps to the task you wish to accomplish and taking the emotion out of the task-at-hand. Whether you feel sad, happy, guilty, mad, or frustrated, deal with the feeling by acknowledging how you feel and allow yourself to get back to a state of peace. Take a walk, call a friend, sit quietly— whatever it takes to get YOU back then tackle the task.